| TO: | Honorable Mike Krusee, Chair, House Committee on Transportation |
| FROM: | John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB1255 by Coleman (Relating to an increased penalty for certain privileged parking offenses.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted |
The bill would amend the Transportation Code as it relates to an increased penalty for certain privileged parking offenses.
The bill would amend the Transportation Code to require a person’s driver’s license to be automatically suspended upon final conviction of use of a disabled parking placard issued to another person or knowingly parking a vehicle displaying a counterfeit placard in a parking space or area designated specifically for persons with disabilities.
The bill would make it an offense for a person to use a disabled parking placard issued to another person. The bill would make use of a disabled parking placard issued to another person, and knowingly parking a vehicle displaying a counterfeit placard in a parking space or area designated specifically for persons with disabilities, a Class B misdemeanor for those persons convicted of a second or subsequent offense.
A person who manufactures, sells, or possesses, without the department's authorization, a placard that is deceptively similar to a disabled parking placard, under the provisions of this bill, would be committing a Class A misdemeanor.
The Department of Public Safety reports officers would need to be trained on the new requirements of the law but training can be accomplished within existing resources.
The bill would take effect September 1, 2005.
| Source Agencies: | 405 Department of Public Safety
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| LBB Staff: | JOB, SR, VDS, SJ, LM
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