LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 76th Regular Session
April 5, 1999
TO: Honorable Bob Turner, Chair, House Committee on Public
Safety
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: HB571 by Hupp (Relating to information collected and
used in connection with a driver's license.), As
Introduced
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* Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* HB571, As Introduced: negative impact of $(2,759,952) through the *
* biennium ending August 31, 2001. *
* *
* The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal *
* basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of *
* the bill. *
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General Revenue-Related Funds, Five-Year Impact:
****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Net Positive/(Negative) *
* Impact to General Revenue Related *
* Funds *
* 2000 $(2,312,879) *
* 2001 (447,073) *
* 2002 (447,073) *
* 2003 (447,073) *
* 2004 (447,073) *
****************************************************
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
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*Fiscal Probable Savings/(Cost) from Change in Number of State *
* Year General Revenue Fund Employees from FY 1999 *
* 0001 *
* 2000 $(2,312,879) 13.0 *
* 2001 (447,073) 8.0 *
* 2002 (447,073) 8.0 *
* 2003 (447,073) 8.0 *
* 2004 (447,073) 8.0 *
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Technology Impact
It is estimated that the Technology Impact for the bill would be
$1,601,002 for the Fiscal Year 2000.
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would amend the Transportation Code, prohibiting the Department
of Public Safety from including any information on a driver's license in
an electronically readable form. The bill would prohibit the Department
from requiring an applicant to provide the applicant's thumbprint or
fingerprint.
Methodology
The bill would require significant changes in the process used to
manufacture driver's licenses. Changing the manufacturing process to
eliminate the use of the one-dimensional barcode and magnetic stripe
would require the Department's current driver's license vendor (Polaroid)
to create new manufacturing procedures and software to drive the
manufacturing equipment. The elimination of thumprinting would require
the creation of software to accomodate necessary changes in the
processing of driver's license applications. It is estimated that the
DPS would incur a cost of $1,378,400 to account for these changes.
To continue to ensure the integrity of documents, the Department's
License Issuance Bureau (LIB) would need 8 additional employees to
physically verify the accuracy of over 4 million driver's licenses
without the assistance of the accelerated functionality of the barcode
technology.
The LIB would also need 5 employees plus equipment the first year of
implementation for the necessary designing, developing, testing and
training to support the changes to the driver's license application.
The Department's Information Management Service (IMS) would be
responsible for new programming necessary to maintain operational
compatibility between existing driver's license database applications
and Polaroid's new production programming. Mail Operations anticipates
substantial increases in mailing costs due to the loss of the barcode
technology.
Local Government Impact
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is
anticipated.
Source Agencies:
LBB Staff: JK, MD