LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 81ST LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

April 9, 2009

TO:	Honorable Tommy Merritt, Chair, House Committee on Public Safety
FROM:	John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB243 by Alonzo (Relating to equipping certain K-9 law enforcement vehicles with heat alarm systems. ), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted

No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

The bill would authorize a law enforcement agency (Department of Public Safety, sheriff's departments, and municipal police departments) to equip each vehicle used in a K-9 law enforcement program with a heat alarm system that meets standards established in the bill. A heat alarm system installed in a vehicle used in a K-9 law enforcement program on the effective date of the bill would not be required to meet the standards for a system established in the bill until January 1, 2011. 

The Department of Public Safety already has a heat alarm system that meets the standards installed in its K-9 law enforcement program vehicles; therefore, no new costs would be incurred for the state.

Local Government Impact

Local law enforcement agencies that already use a heat alarm system that meets the proposed standards would experience no fiscal impact. If an agency that does not currently use a system was to choose to install a system that meets the required standards, the agency would incur costs that would vary by agency, depending on how many vehicles would require the equipment. Dallas County reports the cost of a heat alarm system to be $600.

Source Agencies:

405 Department of Public Safety

LBB Staff:

JOB, DB, ESi, MWU