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.