| TO: | Honorable Harvey Hilderbran, Chair, House Committee on Culture, Recreation, & Tourism |
| FROM: | John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB1257 by Campbell (Relating to a permit to take certain deer causing depredation; providing a penalty. ), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted |
The bill would amend the Parks and Wildlife Code relating to permits to control depredating antlerless white-tailed deer. Under the bill provisions, persons with deer depredation problems desiring to take deer are to provide written notice to the department and may file an application for a permit to take the deer. A completed application must be accompanied by a statement from the Texas Cooperative Extension (TCE) that the applicant’s property is historically used to plant crops susceptible to deer depredation. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) would be required to issue the permit no later than 30 days after receipt of the completed application. The permit would be valid for 30 days, and there would be an opportunity for an automatic 15-day extension. The permittee would be responsible for disposing of the deer carcass according to bill provisions, and upon expiration of the permit, would be required to report the number of deer taken to TPWD.
TPWD reports the fiscal impact to TPWD would be due to costs associated with (1) developing and printing the new applications, forms and permits; (2) staff time involved in reviewing applications and otherwise administering the permit program; and (3) enforcement. However, TPWD anticipates that administration and enforecement of the new permit could be absorbed within existing resources. Further, this estimate assumes that costs for the additional TCE duties to provide statements to permit applicants could be absorbed within existing TCE resources.
| Source Agencies: | 802 Parks and Wildlife Department
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| LBB Staff: | JOB, WK, TB
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