Senate Finance met to take up several bills on March 6. This report only covers discussion on SB 200 (Campbell) relating to the public access to boundary, financial, and tax rate information of certain political subdivisions.
SB 200, Campbell—Relating to the public access to boundary, financial, and tax rate information of certain political subdivisions.
- Texas residents cannot find taxing data easily
- Establishes an easy to use website and database with more tax details
- One stop resource for citizens to see what boundaries apply to them, searchable by address
- Passed 30-0 last session, was caught up on House side
- $608k fiscal note to set up that website, $188k to maintain yearly
- Uresti – will there be a template for the many school districts to import their information?
- TEA would report to the Comptroller who sets up the information
- This website just warehouses the information
Will Counihan—On behalf of the Comptroller’s Office
- West–What changed this year from last year in regards to the increase in fiscal note?
- When we looked at similar bills, we needed additional resources to do these particular type of tasks.
- From experience with these databases, this change is what is needed for the public
- West—So what they used to calculate the fiscal note last session was wrong?
- I don’t know
- West—Apparently it was wrong
- We have new experiences with these new databases that is now informing our new fiscal note
SB 200 Left Pending, since the bill has a fiscal note Nelson pointed out the bill will not be voted out of committee today.