BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 121

By: Heflin

Transportation

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Under current law, specialty license plates honoring peace officers wounded or killed in the line of duty cost more than similar specialty license plates honoring Purple Heart recipients and other veterans.  The intent of this bill is to honor the sacrifices of our peace officers by making the specialty license plates that honor them the same price as those honoring others who have sacrificed in the line of duty.

C.S.H.B. 121 specifies that the fee for issuance of a set of specialty license plates to certain family members of a peace officer killed in the line of duty is $3.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 121 amends the Transportation Code to create an exception to the $20 fee for issuance of a set of specialty license plates honoring peace officers wounded or killed in the line of duty to specify that the fee for plates issued to a surviving spouse, parent, brother, sister, or adult child, including an adopted child or stepchild, of a person killed in the line of duty as a peace officer is $3.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2009.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 121 differs from the original by providing an exception to the $20 fee for issuance of a set of specialty license plates honoring peace officers wounded or killed in the line of duty by establishing that the fee for issuance to a certain family member of a peace officer killed in the line of duty is $3, whereas the original reduces from $20 to $3 the fee for issuance of the specialty license plates to a peace officer who is wounded in the line of duty or to a certain family member of a peace officer killed in the line of duty.  The substitute removes a provision in the original requiring a person applying for a set of license plates honoring a peace officer wounded or killed in the line of duty to pay the applicable vehicle registration fee and providing that one set of license plates shall be issued without payment of the registration fee.