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