The committee considered Senate Bill 10 15, which would establish the comptroller as the sole officer responsible for determining remittance of excess fees related to statutory probate courts and clarify which court fees the comptroller should use under the Local Government Code.

The Dean explained the committee substitute would further clarify that fees remitted to the Office of Court Administration be included in the comptroller’s determinations. Guy Herman, presiding statutory probate court judge in Travis County and the statewide presiding judge elected by statutory probate judges, testified in support and said the funds historically returned to counties help support court creation and operations in large jurisdictions. “The excess funds come in, and they've been allocated back to the counties. And then that gives the county the impetus to have another statutory probate court when one needs to be created,” Herman said.

Herman urged restoring clarity about the comptroller’s notice to judges and counties regarding excess funds. The committee heard the testimony and left the bill pending; no roll call was recorded.

If enacted the bill would alter administrative responsibility for fee remittances; the hearing did not include cost estimates or an enactment date in the oral record.