LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD Austin, Texas FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session March 16, 2001 TO: Honorable Bob Turner, Chair, House Committee on Public Safety FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board IN RE: HB353 by Allen (Relating to exempting certain entities from fees charged for processing inquiries for criminal history information.), As Introduced ************************************************************************** * Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for * * HB353, As Introduced: negative impact of $(6,000,000) through the * * biennium ending August 31, 2003. * * * * 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 * * 2002 $(3,000,000) * * 2003 (3,000,000) * * 2004 (3,000,000) * * 2005 (3,000,000) * * 2006 (3,000,000) * **************************************************** All Funds, Five-Year Impact: ***************************************************** * Fiscal Year Probable Savings/(Cost) from * * General Revenue Fund * * 0001 * * 2002 $(3,000,000) * * 2003 (3,000,000) * * 2004 (3,000,000) * * 2005 (3,000,000) * * 2006 (3,000,000) * ***************************************************** Fiscal Analysis The bill would prohibit the Department of Public Safety (DPS) from charging a fee for a criminal history check, if the requester is a political subdivision of Texas, an agency of the federal government, or a nonprofit corporation. The bill would take effect September 1, 2001. Methodology DPS reports that in fiscal year 2000, 1,804,347 background checks by name, and 59,119 background checks by fingerprints were processed for non criminal justice agencies resulting in $3,000,000 in revenue. This revenue currently returned to the agency as appropriated receipts would be lost under the provisions of the bill. In order to maintain the ability to process these background checks, without the this revenue, DPS would need a direct appropriation equal to the amount of lost appropriated receipts, or $3,000,000 each year. DPS estimates that offering these background checks free to the requesters specified by the bill would increase the demand for these checks by ten percent. If DPS does not receive additional appropriations and personnel to provide for this projected increase in demand, DPS maintains that the response time will be affected to the extent of creating backlogs on processing both priority and non-priority checks. Local Government Impact No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated. Any fiscal impact to local governments would be positive as they would no longer be required to pay for the background checks. Source Agencies: 405 Texas Department of Public Safety, 304 Comptroller of Public Accounts LBB Staff: JK, JC, JN, DG