Honorable Pete Gallego, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:
John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB3478 by Gallego (Relating to the punishment for criminal mischief involving cattle, horses, and exotic livestock. ), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
The bill would amend the Penal Code as it relates to the punishment for criminal mischief involving cattle, horses, and exotic livestock. The bill would make it a third degree felony criminal mischief offense to damage or destroy property that is more than one head of cattle, horses, or exotic livestock with a value of less than $20,000. At present, criminal mischief is punishable as a felony of the third degree if the amount of the pecuniary loss is $20,000 or more but less than $100,000.
A felony of the third degree is punishable by confinement in prison for a term from 2 to 10 years and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.
Expanding the list of behaviors for which a penalty is applied for any criminal offense is expected to result in increased demands upon the correctional resources of counties and or of the State due to longer terms of probation, or longer terms of confinement in county jails or prison. However, in the case of this bill, it is assumed that the number of offenders convicted under this statute would not result in a significant impact on the programs and workload of state corrections agencies or on the demand for resources and services of those agencies. It is expected that individuals who would be affected by the provision of this bill are currently being sentenced for other offenses.