Legislative Services

During the 89th Legislature, members of the Texas Association of Counties' Legislative Services department will again contribute fiscal impact data to the Legislative Budget Board (LBB). The LBB will consider this information for use in fiscal notes — estimates of a bill or joint resolution's financial impact, including potential costs, savings and revenue effects. TAC will work with its affiliate associations to identify bills with significant fiscal impact to counties.

Texas law, along with House and Senate rules, requires a fiscal note to accompany each bill or joint resolution. Legislators rely on these notes to understand the potential impact of proposed legislation on the state and local governments.

Feedback from counties is critical to the assessment of the non-state fiscal impact of legislation. TAC relies on input from our members to estimate the fiscal impact of bills on county budgets in the short and long term. We submit this information to the LBB, which may use it to populate the local government section of the fiscal note.

When requesting assistance from counties, TAC considers factors such as geographic representation, population size, the number of fiscal notes already sent to a particular county and the district of the bill's author. County auditors and treasurers play a key role in providing the necessary financial data.

If you have any questions about the fiscal note process, please contact us at FiscalNotes.