| TO: | Honorable Geanie Morrison, Chair, House Committee On Elections |
| FROM: | Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB148 by Burkett (Relating to aid provided to certain voters; providing criminal penalties.), As Introduced |
The bill would amend the Elections Code as it relates to aid provided to certain voters. Under the provisions of the bill, punishment would be enhanced from a misdemeanor to a state jail felony or from a state jail felony to a felony of the third degree for certain violations of the Elections Code.
Increasing the penalty for any criminal offense is expected to result in increased demands upon the correctional resources of counties and or the State due to longer terms of probation, or longer terms of confinement in county jail, state jail, or prison. When an offense is changed from a misdemeanor to a felony, there is a transfer of the burden of confinement of convicted offenders from the counties to the State. For this analysis, the Legislative Budget Board assumes the number of offenders convicted under the provisions of the bill 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.
The Secretary of State and the Department of Criminal Justice have also indicated that the provisions of the bill could be implemented within existing resources.
The bill would take effect on September 1, 2013 and apply to offenses committed on or after that date.
| Source Agencies: | 307 Secretary of State, 696 Department of Criminal Justice
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| LBB Staff: | UP, KJo, EP, CK, LM, AHE
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