HBA-BSM H.B. 675 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 675 By: Walker Natural Resources 2/25/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The Public Funds Investment Act requires the treasurer, chief financial officer, and the investment office of a local government entity that invests funds to attend at least 10 hours of instruction on investment every two years. Current law creates the potential for multiple members of the district to attend training. Current law also requires instruction for entities even if the majority of investment is low risk. House Bill 675 reduces the amount of instruction to be taken by the investment officer of a district, requires only one officer of a district to attend investment training, and exempts districts from mandatory training if at least 95 percent of investments are low risk. 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 675 amends the Water and Government codes to authorize the board of directors of a district to contract with a person to act as investment officers (officer) of the district. The bill requires only the officer to attend investment training. The bill sets forth provisions regarding the content of the investment training and requires the officer to attend eight hours of initial training and four hours each two-year period after the first year. The bill provides an exemption from continuing education for districts that invest at least 95 percent of funds in low risk investments. The bill also requires that each January whichever group has provided the training for the investment officer is required to report to the comptroller a list of the districts for which the person provided required training during the previous calendar year. EFFECTIVE DATE On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2001.