LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 79TH LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

April 25, 2005

TO:	Honorable Mike Krusee, Chair, House Committee on Transportation
FROM:	John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB1898 by Brown, Fred (Relating to offenses involving use of safety belts or a child passenger safety seat.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted

No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

The bill would amend the Transportation Code making offenses involving the use of a safety belt or a child passenger safety seat a moving violation of a traffic law.  The bill would also amend the Code of Criminal Procedure to change the allowable sentences for defendants charged with the offense of violating child passenger safety seat laws.  A judge would be able to require defendants charged with this offense to complete a specialized driver safety course that includes four hours of child passenger safety seat instruction, even if the defendant had taken a driver's safety course within the last twelve months, provided that the previous course did not include the child passenger safety seat training.  The bill would take effect September 1, 2005. 

 

The Department of Public Safety reports that although the bill will require some programming changes within their mainframe system, the agency can accomplish this with existing resources and the bill will not have a significant fiscal impact.

Local Government Impact

No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.

Source Agencies:

405 Department of Public Safety

LBB Staff:

JOB, SR, VDS, AM, LM