TO:	Honorable Angie Chen Button, Chair, House Committee on International Relations & Economic Development
FROM:	Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB915 by Craddick (Relating to the creation of a workplace violence hotline and a requirement that employers post notice regarding the hotline.), As Introduced

General Revenue-Related Funds, Five- Year Impact:

All Funds, Five-Year Impact:

Fiscal Analysis

This bill would require the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) to establish and maintain a 24-hour toll-free telephone hotline for reports of workplace violence. TDLR would be required to maintain and retain audio recordings from every call and refer reports to appropriate law enforcement divisions. The Texas Workforce Commission would be responsible for developing and adopting rules pertaining to the bill as well as designing the notice that employers would be required to have posted regarding this hotline. 

Methodology

Based on TDLR's analysis of the National Crime Victimization Survey, this estimate assumes that TDLR would receive 20% of all cases of workplace violence not reported to the police as the agency anticipates half of calls that are historically reported instead to a different official entity. 

The agency anticipates and this estimate assumes that TDLR would require 3.0 additional full-time equivalent (FTE) positions to implement the provisions of the bill. Two Customer Service Representative IV FTEs (annual salary of $42,615 and $13,551 in estimated benefits) would be needed to receive calls and reporting required information to law enforcement. These FTEs would also need to receive specialized training, including crisis intervention, de-escalation, ascertaining threat levels, and suicidal callers. A Network Specialist V (annual salary of $79,187 and $25,181 in estimated benefits) would be needed maintain the equipment and technology systems supporting the hotline, including the data storage system for the audio recordings. The total annual cost for these 3.0 would be $238,956 with a one-time start up cost of $29,292.

This analysis assumes that any increased cost to TDLR would be offset by an increase in fee­-generated revenue because the agency is statutorily required to generate sufficient revenue to cover operational costs.

Based on the analysis of the Texas Workforce Commission, duties and responsibilities of implementing the provisions of the bill can be accomplished by utilizing existing resources. 

Technology

The bill would require TDLR to maintain both a 24-hr toll-free hotline and audio-file storage of all calls with a retention period of 2 years. Based on TDLR's analysis of the National Crime Victimization Survey, this estimate assumes that based on the estimated number of calls to the hotline described above and with an average of 15 minutes per call, total technology costs of maintaining the hotline and audio storage would be $150,831 in fiscal year 2024, $1,044,514 in fiscal year 2025, $1,889,029 in fiscal year 2026, $1,990,459 in fiscal year 2027, and $1,990,459 in fiscal year 2028.

Local Government Impact

No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.