LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD Austin, Texas FISCAL NOTE 75th Regular Session April 10, 1997 TO: Honorable John Whitmire, Chair IN RE: Senate Bill No. 1546 Committee on Criminal Justice By: Ogden Senate Austin, Texas FROM: John Keel, Director In response to your request for a Fiscal Note on SB1546 ( Relating to crime stoppers organizations and their reward funds.) this office has detemined the following: Biennial Net Impact to General Revenue Funds by SB1546-As Introduced No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated. Under current law, local crime stoppers programs receive up to $50 from each probation sentence. The bill would authorize the Crime Stoppers Advisory Council at the Office of the Governor would to limit the size of the fees that can accumulate in a local crime stopper organizations' reward account, where probation fees are deposited. Funds received by organizations in excess of the limits would be transferred from the local programs to the crime stoppers account in the General Revenue Fund, creating a gain to that fund. The Council would be able to re-distribute these transferred funds to any local crime stopper organization(s). The bill would authorize the appropriation of funds to a statewide crime stoppers organization. The amount that the General Revenue Fund might gain from excess reward account transfers would depend on the limits established by the Crime Stoppers Advisory Council and the fund balances in local reward accounts. With respect to local crime stoppers organizations, the amount of money transferred from local crime stoppers programs would also depend on the reward account limits established by the Governor's Crime Stoppers Advisory Council and the balances that these accounts have accumulated. The amount distributed to local crime stoppers organizations from these transfers would be at the discretion of the Council. Source: Agencies: 301 Office of the Governor 696 Department of Criminal Justice 304 Comptroller of Public Accounts LBB Staff: JK ,CB ,RN