HBA-MSH H.B. 3073 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3073
By: Chisum
County Affairs
4/1/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Under current law, the qualified voters of a county with a population of
more than 25,000 may petition the commissioners court of the county to
increase the minimum salary of each member of the sheriff's department.
Currently, there is no limit on the amount of a proposed pay increase or on
the effective date of any proposed increase.  If such an issue brings about
an election and passes, counties may be forced to pay large increases with
little advance warning.  House Bill 3073 prohibits these proposed pay
increases for members of a sheriff's department from exceeding 10 percent
of a current salary and from taking effect until the next fiscal year. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 3073 amends the Local Government Code to prohibit a petition by
qualified voters in certain counties to increase the pay of each member of
a sheriff's department from proposing an increase of greater than 10
percent of the current salary.  The bill also prohibits the effective date
of the proposed salary increase from being earlier than the first day of
the next county fiscal year. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act
takes effect September 1, 2001.