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 ************************************************************************** * 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. * ************************************************************************** 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: *************************************************************************** *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 * *************************************************************************** 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