LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 80TH LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

May 6, 2007

TO:	Honorable Aaron Pena, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:	John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB172 by Raymond (Relating to the confidentiality of a family violence victim's identifying information; providing a penalty. ), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted

No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

The bill would require the distribution to all law enforcement agencies of the state a pseudonym form to record the name, address, telephone number, and pseudonym of a family violence victim. It is anticipated that any additional costs associated with implementation of the bill could be absorbed within existing state resources.
 
The bill would take effect September 1, 2007.

Local Government Impact

There would be costs to the Travis County Sheriff’s Office to makes changes to Tiburon, the county’s integrated justice system that tracks all actions with regard to filings. It is unknown how much costs would be to modify the system to make changes only to those filings that are not intended for distribution to the public or not subject to an open records request under Chapter 552 of the Government Code, but it would be slightly less than the $1.5 million in fiscal year 2008 reported in the introduced version of the bill. The maintenance costs of any changes could be approximately $150,000 per year until 2012, when an additional full time equivalent (FTE) might have to be hired, raising the yearly cost to $217,000.

 

The City of Abilene reported costs of $110,000 in fiscal year 2008 for salaries and capital outlay for two new employees; these costs would rise to $121,550 by fiscal year 2012. Dallas County reported potential costs of $3,500 per fiscal year in personnel overtime.

Bexar County reported that implementing the provisions on the bill would require the hiring of one FTE clerk position, resulting in personnel and capital outlay costs of approximately $24,221 in fiscal year 2008. These costs would rise to $25,401 in fiscal year 2012. Depending on how long the county would have to achieve compliance, additional clerks could be needed, and costs would increase accordingly.

 

There could be similar costs to other cities, counties, or local law enforcement agencies, depending on the number of confidentiality filings in their area.

 

Fort Bend, Harris, Tarrant, and Tom Green counties reported that implementing the provisions of the bill would have little to no fiscal impact on their offices.

Source Agencies:

LBB Staff:

JOB, ES, KJG, JM