LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 87TH LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

April 13, 2021

TO:	Honorable Chris Paddie, Chair, House Committee on State Affairs
FROM:	Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB3345 by Wu (Relating to public access to the audit records of certain governmental entities.), As Introduced

No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

The bill would add Chapter 561 to the Government Code to require governmental entities to make audit records of the entity available to the public on request.  Governmental entities would be required to post final reports of audits on a publicly accessible website no later than five business days after the date the audit is completed. Governmental entities would be authorized to redact confidential information from audit reports, as required by state or federal law.

Costs associated with implementing the provisions of the bill would be associated with responding to increased public information requests for audit records. It is assumed that these costs could be absorbed within existing resources.

Local Government Impact

Eastland County does not anticipate a significant fiscal impact to the county. The fiscal impact to other units of local government is not anticipated to be significant.

Source Agencies:

212 Office of Court Admin, 304 Comptroller of Public Accounts, 313 Department of Information Resources, 405 Department of Public Safety, 608 Department of Motor Vehicles

LBB Staff:

JMc, SMAT, SD, BRI