| TO: | Honorable Larry Phillips, Chair, House Committee on Transportation |
| FROM: | Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB3094 by Fletcher (Relating to imposing a law enforcement fee for certain offenses and violations related to vehicle weight limits.), As Introduced |
The bill will not have a General Revenue Related Funds cost for the biennium ending August 31, 2015.
The bill will produce a revenue gain to General Revenue starting in fiscal year 2014. As there is no available data upon which to base an estimate of the number of overweight penalties that might be imposed and the fine and penalty revenues that might be generated, the revenue gain is indeterminate.
| Fiscal Year | Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds |
|---|---|
| 2014 | $0 |
| 2015 | $0 |
| 2016 | $0 |
| 2017 | $0 |
| 2018 | $0 |
| Fiscal Year | Probable Savings/(Cost) from State Highway Fund 6 |
Change in Number of State Employees from FY 2013 |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | ($495,631) | 10.0 |
| 2015 | ($479,981) | 10.0 |
| 2016 | ($479,981) | 10.0 |
| 2017 | ($479,981) | 10.0 |
| 2018 | ($483,641) | 10.0 |
The bill would amend the Transportation Code to require a court to assess a $500 law enforcement fee against a person who commits an offense for operating or loading a vehicle over certain legal axle weight and gross weight limits. The fee would be deposited to the General Revenue Fund and could only be appropriated for law enforcement purposes. The bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to assess a law enforcement fee against a person convicted of an offense for operating a vehicle exceeding legal weight limits in amount equal to $1 per each pound over the authorized axle weight or gross weight tolerance. The fee would be deposited to the General Revenue Fund; half of the fee could only be appropriated for law enforcement purposes and the remainder could only be appropriated to the DMV for road maintenance. The bill would require the DMV to assess $5,000 law enforcement on a shipper who provides false information on a shipper's certificate of weight. The fee would deposited to the General Revenue Funds and could only be appropriated for law enforcement purposes.
The bill would establish that it is an affirmative defense to prosecution for operating a vehicle over legal weight limits if the vehicle was not more than five percent over the legal limit and loaded with unprocessed timber, pulp wood, wood chips, or cotton, livestock, or other agricultural products being transported from the place of production to the place of first marketing or first processing.
The bill would take effect on September 1, 2013.
The provisions of bill would authorize additional penalties for overweight vehicle violations to be deposited into the General Revenue fund. While it is assumed the additional revenue generated from these penalties would result in a positive fiscal impact to the state, the amount of revenue cannot be determined because the number of convictions for violations covered by the bill is unknown. Additionally, the DMV reports that the agency has not received any cases relating to the falsification of information on a shipper's certificate of weight. Therefore, an estimate of the potential revenue gain to the state is not included in the table above.
Based on information provided by the DMV, it is assumed that the agency would review approximately 10,000 to 20,000 motor carrier citations per month related to vehicles that violate size and weight laws in order to assess the new law enforcement fees. It is assumed the agency would require ten additional full-time employees to conduct these reviews for a cost of $479,981 for salaries each year. The associated benefits costs are estimated to be $108,283 each year. Initial costs for furniture, computer hardware and software, and utilities for ten new employees are estimated to be $15,650 in fiscal year 2014. Ongoing costs for travel, consumable supplies, utilities, rent, and other operating expenses are estimated to be $7,600 each year with an additional cost of $3,660 in fiscal year 2018 for the routine replacement of computer equipment in alignment with the agency's five-year replacement schedule.
| Source Agencies: | 212 Office of Court Administration, Texas Judicial Council, 304 Comptroller of Public Accounts, 608 Department of Motor Vehicles
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| LBB Staff: | UP, AG, MW, TG, ED
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