Honorable Jim McReynolds, Chair, House Committee on Corrections
FROM:
John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB2161 by Turner, Sylvester (Relating to the issuance of a personal identification certificate to present or former inmates of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. ), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
The bill would amend the Government and Transportation Codes relating to the application for the Texas Identification Certificate (ID card) for offenders being paroled who do not have a valid Texas Driver License or Identification Certificate. The bill would require application for the ID card to be made 90 days prior to the parole date. The bill would require the Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to provide the Department of Public Safety (DPS) with a current photograph and a certified copy of the offender identification card or similar form of identification. The bill would require any fees associated with obtaining the ID Cards to be paid equally by TDCJ, Project RIO, and DPS.
To maintain security to the driver license identity program, the DPS Driver License Division would create a process to accept identifying information from TDCJ and current offender photograph to produce a Texas Identification Card. Modifications to the existing driver license system to create a program to enter, scan, and produce the ID card will require programming estimated to be $56,400. Additionally, costs associated for an image collection application to be developed and manually scan the offender photograph and signature into the driver license system for the ID card is estimated to be $32,000. DPS anticipates one additional FTE (A15 classification) would be needed for this project. DPS has determined that costs associated with implementing the bill would not be significant and could be absorbed with current appropriations.
TDCJ has determined that costs associated for applying for the ID card would be dependent on the number of releases and the fee associated with obtaining the personal identification certificates. TDCJ assumes that there would be an additional fiscal impact for their portion of the fees to obtain the primary documents that DPS requires prior to issuance of the personal ID card; however, in this analysis it is assumed that the additional fiscal impact could be absorbed with existing agency resources.
Local Government Impact
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.
Source Agencies:
405 Department of Public Safety, 696 Department of Criminal Justice