LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                              Austin, Texas
                                     
                    FISCAL NOTE, 76th Regular Session
  
                            February 15, 1999
  
  
          TO:  Honorable Ken Armbrister, Chair, Senate Committee on
               Criminal Justice
  
        FROM:  John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
  
       IN RE:  SB388  by Lucio (Relating to the criminal consequences of
               driving while intoxicated and to the civil consequences
               of failure to submit to the taking of a blood, breath,
               or urine specimen for analysis to determine
               intoxication.), As Introduced
  
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*  No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.        *
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Local Government Impact
  
Fiscal Analysis

The bill would create a Class B misdemeanor offense and mandate a minimum
term of confinement of 5 days for refusal to provide a breath or blood
specimen for analysis to determine the alcohol concentration or presence
of other drug in the defendant's body. This would effectively add two
days to the minimum period of confinement for those currently convicted
of driving while intoxicated under Penal Code, Section 49.04.

Methodology

According to the Department of Public Safety (DPS), there were 55,953
breathalyzer tests administered statewide by state and local peace
officers in fiscal year 1998 and 39,323 persons who refused to submit to
such testing. According to the Office of Court Administration's fiscal
year 1998 Texas Judicial System Annual Report, 74,379 of 110,534 driving
while intoxicated (DWI) or driving under the influence of drugs cases
disposed in county and district courts resulted in conviction, or
approximately 67.3 percent. According to the State Commission on Jail
Standards, the average cost of confinement per inmate was $33.66 in
calendar year 1996.  The cost to an individual county would depend on the
number of DWI cases, refusals and daily jail costs per inmate.

Fiscal Impact

Assuming that an equal proportion of those refusing to submit to specimen
testing are convicted of DWI as those who accept to submit to testing,
approximately 67.3 percent of the 39,323 annual refusals, or 26,461
persons, currently serve the minimum 72 hours and would be required to
serve an additional  two days of confinement, as a result of the bill's
enactment. This would cost counties statewide an additional $1.8 million
per year. The 32.7 percent of those refusing specimen tests, or 12,859
persons, who are not convicted of DWI and currently are not required to
serve any minimum term of confinement would serve a minimum five days, at
a additional annual cost of $2.2 million to counties statewide. Based on
this analysis, additional annual confinement costs to counties could
increase by as much as $3.9 million as a result of the bill's enactment.

It should be noted that the changes in penalties proposed by the bill
could result in a significantly greater degree of compliance with
officers' blood and breath testing requests, which would reduce the
impact of the bill to counties. Likewise, if some judges waive the
minimum incarceration provisions in the bill, the fiscal impact to
counties could be significantly less.
  
  
Source Agencies:   
LBB Staff:         JK, MD, TL