TO:	Honorable Dan Patrick, Lieutenant Governor, Senate
FROM:	Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	SB3 by Huffman (Relating to an appropriation to provide funding for the construction, operation, and maintenance of border barrier infrastructure and border security operations, including funding for additional overtime expenses and costs due to certain increased law enforcement presence.), As Passed 2nd House

Appropriations:

General Revenue-Related Funds, Five- Year Impact:

All Funds, Five-Year Impact:

Fiscal Analysis

The bill would appropriate $1.54 billion in General Revenue Funds to the Office of the Governor's Trusteed Programs (OOG) for border security operations and the construction, operation, and maintenance of border barrier infrastructure. Of the appropriated amount, the bill would designate $40.0 million to be transferred to the Department of Public Safety for border security operations, which includes paying for additional overtime expenses and costs due to public safety issues in the Colony Ridge development located in Liberty County, Texas.

The bill would prohibit included appropriations from being used to: acquire property through the exercise of eminent domain; build a barrier along the state's international border with Mexico on property acquired through the exercise of eminent domain; acquire property for a barrier that abuts the jurisdictional boundary between this state and another U.S. state; or build a barrier that abuts the jurisdictional boundary between this state and another U.S. state.

Methodology

This analysis assumes that the OOG would grant the undesignated funding to the Texas Facilities Commission (TFC), given that TFC has received the majority of prior funding for the construction of new border barrier alignments. This analysis also assumes that TFC would be designated responsibility for operations and maintenance of the border barrier.

Local Government Impact

The bill would include the provision of grants to local governments and local law enforcement agencies to alleviate costs associated with an increased demand on local prosecutorial, judicial, and correctional resources as a purpose for which the bill's appropriation may be spent. The related fiscal implications cannot be determined as the timing, number, and amounts of any such grants are unknown.