LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 76th Regular Session
May 14, 1999
TO: Honorable Ken Armbrister, Chair, Senate Committee on
Criminal Justice
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: HB2145 by Allen (Relating to persons subject to sex
offender registration requirements and to the conditions
for supervised release of those persons.), Committee
Report 2nd House, Substituted
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* Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* HB2145, Committee Report 2nd House, Substituted: negative impact *
* of $(1,461,396) 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 Net Impact:
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* Fiscal Year Probable Net Positive/(Negative) *
* Impact to General Revenue Related *
* Funds *
* 2000 $(1,185,316) *
* 2001 (276,080) *
* 2002 (386,150) *
* 2003 (295,822) *
* 2004 (303,761) *
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All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
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*Fiscal Probable Probable Revenue Change in Number of *
* Year Savings/(Cost) from Gain/(Loss) from State Employees from *
* General Revenue Fund General Revenue Fund FY 1999 *
* 0001 0001 *
* 2000 $(1,297,636) $112,320 9.0 *
* 2001 (544,254) 268,174 10.0 *
* 2002 (593,478) 207,328 11.0 *
* 2003 (636,762) 340,940 12.0 *
* 2004 (723,790) 420,029 13.0 *
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Technology Impact
It is estimated that the Technology Impact for the bill would be
$1,005,756 for fiscal year 2000 and $196,713 for each year thereafter.
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would require the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to include
an indicator on a driver s license or personal identification certificate
record that a person (including a current parolee, probationer, or
juvenile sex offender) is subject to registration requirements as a sex
offender under Chapter 62 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. A
defendant's failure to apply to the department as required by the bill
would result in the automatic revocation of any driver s license or
personal identification certificate. The fee for the new driver s
license or identification certificate would be $5.00.
The bill would establish a Risk Assessment Review Committee to develop or
select a sex offender screening tool to assess an individual's risk to
the community. The bill would revise public notice requirements for
persons subject to sex offender registration. The bill would direct the
Department of Public Safety to provide written notice to residents
within a three-block area for individuals subject to sex-offender
registration who are assessed to be a danger to the community.
Notifications would be required when the individual is released from a
penal institution, placed on community supervision or juvenile
probation, or moves to a new address. The offender would be required to
pay the Department for all costs incurred in providing the
notifications.
Methodology
The Department's Driver Improvement and Control Bureau (DIC) would be
required to process and update files of persons required to be registered
under Chapter 62, Code of Criminal Procedure and take suspension action
against those refusing to obtain a license or identification certificate
or failing to renew their license or identification certificate. It is
estimated that DIC would need three additional Administrative Technician
II's plus equipment to process these cases.
The Department's Information Management Service (IMS) would need to
modify its existing sex-offender database to prepare notifications and
modify programs for its distributed driver license and host systems. IMS
would incur contract programming costs at an estimated $745,200 and need
2 additional programmers and one database administrator to implement the
changes.
The bill would generate revenue as a result of the $5 fee. According to
DPS records, there are approximately 18,059 persons presently required to
register as sex offenders in Texas. An additional 2,500 individuals are
convicted each year who would be covered under the bill. According to
DPS, requiring these individuals to renew their driver s license or
identification certificate every year after the initial 2-year issuance
would result in an estimated increase in revenue of $0 - FY 2000;
$112,590 - FY2001; $20,960 - FY2002; $132,940 - FY2003; $139,645 -
FY2004.
It is estimated that there are approximately 1,900 individuals convicted
of a sex offense requiring registration in Texas per year, that 43% of
these individuals are placed on community supervision or probation, and
that 33% of these individuals would be assessed as level one and require
resident notification. This estimate yields 270 individuals per year
placed on community supervision or juvenile probation requiring
notifications. Based on sex offender release data for fiscal year 1998,
it is estimated that 104 offenders requiring the revised notification to
residents would be released in fiscal year 2001. The number of parole
releases estimated to meet the notification requirements would increase
to 178 in fiscal year 2002, 230 in fiscal year 2003, and 404 in fiscal
year 2004. It is estimated that each parolee or individual placed on
community supervision or juvenile probation would move 3 times requiring
additional notifications, that each notification would involve 540
households (36 blocks x 15 households/block), and that each notice would
cost 16.6 cents per household. Seven Clerks III would be required for
the mail notifications. Three would be hired in fiscal year 2000 and
one additional clerk would be hired in each of the subsequent 4 years.
Cost recovery would require charging each offender $208 for each round
of notifications. Revenue estimates are based on a 50% success rate in
recovering costs.
Local Government Impact
Notification requirements of the bill could result in additional costs to
units of local government.
Source Agencies:
LBB Staff: JK, MD, BP