Fiscal Note

HB0166 - Transportation Revisions

State Impact:
Provisions of this bill transfers the administrative functions and revenue stream of the Utah Transit Authority into the Department of Transportation. The Attorney General's cost to handle the merger and merged operations will require an appropriation of $1,494,100 (including $38,500 one-time office equipment costs) from the Transportation Fund to the Office of Attorney General in FY 2008. The bill increases the Transportation Commission by four members requiring an ongoing appropriation of $25,100 from the Transportation Fund. The cost to the Tax Commission to send vendor bulletins informing them of tax rate changes will require a one-time appropriation of $33,300 from the General Fund in FY 2008. It is unknown at this time if efficiencies or increased costs could be expected when combining administrative functions. Areas such as human resources, procurement processes, accounting policies and procedures, risk management, facility and construction procedures, auditing requirements, investment policies and procedures, bonding requirements and procedures will be required to undergo conversions to state systems. One time transition costs for these functions could be at least $1,000,000, requiring that amount be appropriated as one-time funds from the Transportation Fund. If the decision is made to co-locate management functions, there would be an additional one-time expense which cannot be estimated at this time. Provisions of the bill will shift revenue from counties to the state for transit purposes. The FY 2008 change to the State is estimated to be a gain of $62,711,300. And FY 2009 revenue shift is estimated to be gain of $130,690,300 to the State.

Individual, Business and/or Local Impact:
Counties are estimated to receive $32,588,100 less revenue in FY 2008 and $67,913,500 less revenue in FY 2009 for transit purposes under provisions of the bill.