LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                              Austin, Texas
                                     
                    FISCAL NOTE, 76th Regular Session
  
                              April 16, 1999
  
  
          TO:  Honorable Ken Armbrister, Chair, Senate Committee on
               Criminal Justice
  
        FROM:  John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
  
       IN RE:  SB1774  by Zaffirini (Relating to the suspension of a
               person's driver's license following the person's arrest
               for certain intoxication offenses and to certain
               procedures related to that suspension.), Committee
               Report 1st House, Substituted
  
**************************************************************************
*  Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for    *
*  SB1774, Committee Report 1st House, Substituted:  positive impact     *
*  of $1,791,016 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                             $645,753  *
          *       2001                            1,145,263  *
          *       2002                            1,145,263  *
          *       2003                            1,145,263  *
          *       2004                            1,145,263  *
          ****************************************************
  
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
  
**************************************************************************
*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           $(1,015,287)           $1,661,040                  9.0 *
*  2001              (515,777)            1,661,040                  9.0 *
*  2002              (515,777)            1,661,040                  9.0 *
*  2003              (515,777)            1,661,040                  9.0 *
*  2004              (515,777)            1,661,040                  9.0 *
**************************************************************************
  
Technology Impact
  
The technology impact for the bill is estimated to be $604,223 in FY2000
and $193,295 for each year thereafter.
  
  
Fiscal Analysis
  
The bill would amend the Transportation Code to extend the periods of
suspension for the offense of Driving While Intoxicated (DWI).  Failure
of a breath test with one or more previous alcohol or drug-related
offenses within a ten year period from the point of arrest (up from 5
years under current law), would result in an extended suspension period
of one year.  Refusal to take a breath test would result in an extended
suspension period of one year.

The bill would require the arresting officer in a DWI case to send to the
custody of DPS additional information pertaining to the details of the
arrest.

The bill would also increases the cost of an occupational license issued
to a person suspended for DWI or ALR related circumstances from $10 to
$250.
  
  
Methodology
  
The Department's Information Management Service (IMS) would incur an
estimated $422,400 in costs to provide programming for a new database to
track the status of licenses that are forwarded to DPS; to ensure data
exchange capability between the new database and the Driver's License
Host System; and to account for the new driver's license suspension
periods.  IMS would need two additional programmers and one database
administrator to assist in carrying out these functions.

The Department's Safety Responsibility Bureau (SRB) would be required to
receive, store and evaluate the status on an estimated  100,000 driver's
licenses each year that DPS would receive from law enforcement officers.
SRB would need 6 employees plus an estimated $162,402 in capital and
operating expenses to handle the additional workload.

The bill would generate revenue.  The bill would raise the price for an
occupational license from $10 to $250.  It is expected that the
increased suspension periods of the bill would bring about additional
occupational license requests so that those licensees could continue to
drive for essential purposes.  This increase would likely be somewhat
offset by the number of potential occupational license applicants that
would chose not to apply for the license as a result of its increased
price.  Assuming that the same number of applicants would apply for the
license (6,921) as in 1997, it is estimated that the state would receive
$1,661,040, annually.
  
  
Local Government Impact
  
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is
anticipated.
  
  
Source Agencies:   405   Department of Public Safety
LBB Staff:         JK, MD