TO:	Honorable Joe Moody, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:	Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB1581 by Thimesch (Relating to the manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance causing death or serious bodily injury; creating a criminal offense.), As Introduced

The bill would create the criminal offense of manufacturing or delivering a controlled substance in violation of the Texas Controlled Substances Act causing death or serious bodily injury and establish the penalty as a second degree felony for causing serious bodily injury and a first degree felony for causing death. The bill would prohibit the court from ordering the sentence for such an offense to run concurrently with any other sentence the court imposes on the defendant.

The fiscal impact and any impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources cannot be determined due to the lack of data to identify the number of cases where the manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance caused death or serious bodily injury. The Office of Court Administration does not anticipate a significant fiscal impact to the state court system.

Local Government Impact

While the fiscal impact cannot be determined, creating a new criminal offense may result in increased demands upon local correctional resources due to a possible increase in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement.