HBA-TYH S.B. 279 76(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisS.B. 279 By: Carona State Affairs 4/27/1999 Engrossed BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, Texas law authorizes the General Services Commission to determine a charge schedule for governmental bodies responding to open records requests. While this charge schedule is provided to allow governmental bodies to recover the costs of responding to private requests, some governmental bodies choose to use this charge schedule to require payment from other governmental bodies requesting information. S.B. 279 requires a governmental body to provide without charge a copy of public information requested by another governmental body for an official purpose. The bill also provides for certain exceptions to this requirement. 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. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 552.267, Government Code, to require a governmental body to provide without charge one copy of public information that is requested for an official purpose by another governmental body. Creates an exception that if the charge for producing one copy exceeds $500 for a governmental body that employs more than 10 full-time employees or $100 for a governmental body that employs 10 or fewer full-time employees, the requesting governmental body is required, upon request, to pay the costs for producing the information. SECTION 2. Emergency clause. Effective date: 90 days after adjournment.