HBA-CBW H.B. 3208 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3208
By: Turner, Sylvester
State Affairs
4/25/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Many state agencies have begun to post information on the Internet that was
historically sold to the public, such as customer lists and licensee lists.
As a result of this information's availability to the public at no cost,
agencies have lost a significant source of revenue.   House Bill 3208
authorizes the governing bodies of certain state agencies  to estimate,  in
cooperation with the Legislative Budget Board, the amount of revenue lost
and to include that amount in the agency's legislative appropriations
request. 

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 3208 amends the Government Code to provide that the governing
body of a state agency that has determined that a requirement in law to
make certain information available at cost in response to a request for the
information or freely available on the Internet has the effect of
significantly reducing the agency's  revenue derived from the sale of such
information as compared to information sales revenue collected before the
requirement took effect may: 

  _ estimate, in cooperation with the Legislative Budget Board, the amount
of revenue lost as a result of the requirement; and 

  _include the estimated amount in the agency's legislative appropriations
request. 


EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.