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