HBA-NRS H.B. 2497 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2497
By: Haggerty
County Affairs
3/25/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Current law requires a county or district clerk, when certain funds
deposited into the court registry are withdrawn, to allocate to the county
general fund an amount equal to ten percent of interest earned on registry
funds placed in an interest-bearing special or separate account on or after
September 1, 1997, even though the interest may have accrued prior to
September 1, 1997. This amount is meant to compensate the county for the
accounting and administrative expenses incurred in maintaining the account.
There has been some question as to whether the 10 percent interest paid to
the general fund of a county is excessive in cases where a large sum of
money has been held by a county.  House Bill 2497 reduces the amount of
interest to be paid to the general fund of a county from 10 to five
percent.  

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 2497 amends the Local Government Code to require five percent,
rather than 10 percent, of the interest earned on a special account or a
separate account of a county to be paid to the general fund of the county
and 95 percent, rather than 90 percent, of the interest to be credited to
the special or separate account. Furthermore, the bill requires the clerk,
at the time of withdrawal, to deduct from the amount of the withdrawal a
fee in an amount equal to 2.5, rather than five, percent of the withdrawal,
but not in excess of $25, rather than $50, to compensate the county for the
accounting and administrative expenses incurred in handling the registry
funds that have not earned interest. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.