LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
February 1, 2001
TO: Honorable Kenneth Armbrister, Chair, Senate Committee on
Criminal Justice
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: SB21 by Shapiro (Relating to criminal solicitation of
certain offenses involving a controlled substance;
providing a penalty.), As Introduced
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* Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* SB21, As Introduced: negative impact of $(17,613,110) 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 $(3,773,458) *
* 2003 (13,839,652) *
* 2004 (17,469,293) *
* 2005 (18,949,233) *
* 2006 (16,696,359) *
****************************************************
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
*****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Savings/(Cost) from *
* General Revenue Fund *
* 0001 *
* 2002 $(3,773,458) *
* 2003 (13,839,652) *
* 2004 (17,469,293) *
* 2005 (18,949,233) *
* 2006 (16,696,359) *
*****************************************************
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would amend the Penal Code by adding solicitation of delivery of
a controlled substance to the list of offenses eligible for prosecution
under the criminal solicitation section of the Penal Code. The bill
would establish the sanction for solicitation of delivery of a controlled
substance as being one category lower than the punishment applicable to
a person who delivers a controlled substance in that penalty group.
The proposed provision could be used by prosecuting attorneys to expand
the number of convictions for drug related offenses, or to increase the
penalty for persons charged with other lesser offenses.
The change in law made by this Act applies only to an offense committed
on or after September 1, 2001.
Methodology
The probable impact of implementing the provisions of this bill would
depend on the application of the proposed criminal solicitation provision
of the Penal Code by law enforcement agencies and prosecuting attorneys.
In fiscal year 2000, 17,000 offenders were either sentenced to prison or
state jail in Texas for drug offenses. For the purpose of this analysis
it is assumed that the criminal solicitation provision of this bill would
result in increased admissions to state jail and prison by 10 percent
(1,700 admissions).
In order to estimate the future impact of the proposal, the changes
proposed for admission and release policy are applied in simulation
models, to (1) prison and state jail admissions that reflect the
distribution of offenses, sentence lengths, and time served, and (2) the
increase in the number of people on parole supervision, due to the number
of inmates released during the time period of the fiscal note who will
require parole supervision. Included in the estimated costs is projected
parole operating costs.
Costs of incarceration by the Department of Criminal Justice are
estimated on the basis of $40 per inmate per day for prison facilities
and $32.08 per day for state jail facilities, reflecting approximate
costs of either operating state facilities or contracting with other
entities. No costs are included for prison or state jail construction.
Options available to address the increased demand for prison capacity
that would result from implementation of this bill include construction
of new prisons and contracting with counties or private entities.
After five years of cumulative impact, fiscal implications will continue
as long as the provisions of the bill are implemented.
Local Government Impact
The fiscal implications of implementing the provisions of this bill to
units of local government would also be contingent on the use of the
proposed criminal solicitation provision by law enforcement agencies and
prosecuting attorneys. Many of the offenses prosecuted under the
proposed criminal solicitation provision would result in misdemeanors,
causing an increase in county jail populations and increased misdemeanor
community supervision populations.
Source Agencies:
LBB Staff: JK, JC, GG