HBA-CMT C.S.H.B. 370 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 370
By: Hinojosa
County Affairs
4/17/2001
Committee Report (Substituted)



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Currently, a number of county records are deteriorating and are in need of
preservation.  C.S.H.B. 370 provides for a fee to be imposed for filing
public documents in county clerk offices in counties adjacent to an
international boundary for the purpose of preserving, restoring, and
managing certain county records.  

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

C.S.H.B. 370 amends the Local Government Code to authorize the
commissioners court of a county adjacent to an international border to
adopt as part of the county's annual budget a records archive fee of not
more than $5 for the preservation and restoration services performed by the
county clerk in connection with maintaining a county clerks record archive.
The fee must be set and itemized in the county's budget as part of the
budget preparation process.  The fee is required to be paid at the time a
person, excluding a state agency, presents a public document to the county
clerk for recording or filing.  The fee is to be deposited in a separate
records archive account in the general fund of the county.  The bill
requires the county clerk to prepare an annual written plan for funding the
preservation and restoration of the county clerk's records archive, and
sets forth provisions regarding approval by the commissioners court of the
plan and the county clerk's compliance with the plan.  The bill sets forth
publishing requirements for the commissioners court to give notice of a
hearing on the proposed plan. The fee is to be used only for the
preservation and restoration of the county clerk's archive and is
prohibited from being used to purchase, lease, or develop computer software
to geographically index public records, but can be used to index public
records by lot and block description on microfilm.  Any excess funds
generated from the collection of a fee remaining after completion of a
county records archive preservation and restoration project are to be used
only for specific records management and preservation purposes. 

The provisions of this bill expire on September 1, 2008.

EFFECTIVE DATE
 
September 1, 2001. 

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B 370 modifies the original bill by restricting the provisions of the
bill to counties that are adjacent to an international boundary.  The
substitute provides that any fee established under the bill is considered
to be part of the county's annual budget and must be set and itemized in
the county's annual budget.  The substitute requires the commissioners
court to publish notice of a public hearing on an annual written plan for
funding the preservation and restoration of the county clerk's archive in a
newspaper of general circulation in the county no later than the 15th day
before the date of the hearing.