Honorable Lois W. Kolkhorst, Chair, Senate Committee on Health & Human Services
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB2023 by Blanco (Relating to the establishment of a grant program to support the disposition of deceased paupers' bodies.), As Introduced
The fiscal implications of the bill cannot be determined due to the unknown cost related to the grant funding needs required to develop the deceased paupers grant program.
The bill would require the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to develop a deceased paupers grant program to award grants from the deceased paupers grant account established by the bill to counties to pay certain costs associated with the disposition of deceased paupers' bodies. This analysis assumes HHSC would require appropriations to implement the grant program, which are expected to be significant, but the cost for grant funding is unknown at this time as HHSC does not have experience with this type of service and there is no existing program comparable at HHSC to develop a cost estimate for this purpose.
Based on information provided by HHSC, an additional 1.5 full-time-equivalents (FTEs) would be needed to administer the grant program. However, this analysis assumes that any related administrative costs would be insignificant to HHSC.
Note: This legislation would do one or more of the following: create or recreate a dedicated account in the General Revenue Fund, create or recreate a special or trust fund either in, with, or outside the Treasury, or create a dedicated revenue source. The fund, account, or revenue dedication included in this bill would be subject to funds consolidation review by the current Legislature.
Local Government Impact
The bill's provisions related to developing the deceased paupers grant program may benefit impacted counties but in an amount that cannot be determined at this time.