This bill would designate the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) as responsible for the care and custody of the Victory or Death letter, the Texas Constitution, and the Texas Declaration of Independence. It would require TSLAC to designate an appropriate place in the Alamo complex for the secure display of the Victory or Death letter, and coordinate with the Historical Commission on the transfer of the letter to the Alamo complex. TSLAC would be required to collaborate with the Historical Commission to determine an appropriate public location in the capitol complex to display the Texas Constitution, the Declaration or Independence, and until the appropriate time to transfer it to the Alamo complex, the Victory or Death letter. Costs attributable to the display of the three documents would be paid by TSLAC.
According to TSLAC, research conducted with the National Institute of Science and Technology concluded that total costs to display all three documents in a public location could range between $1,819,245 and $3,063,350 for fiscal year 2026. This would include three state of the art encasements made with a double layer of tempered glass, sealing the documents in argon gas with precise sensors, a frame machined from a solid metal block, and sealed together with a tin and nickel alloy. Each encasement is estimated to cost between $473,415 and $888,117. The encasements would be housed in three formal exhibit cases (approximately $33,000 per case), and installed at the determined location (approximately $100,000 per case). The exact parameters of the encasements would be primarily dependent on the condition of the documents they house, and as such, the fiscal impact cannot be determined at this time.
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.