83(R) HB 3165 - Introduced version

TO:	Honorable Joseph Pickett, Chair, House Committee on Homeland Security & Public Safety

FROM:	Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board

IN RE:	HB3165 by Stickland (Relating to local government photographic monitoring systems.), As Introduced

The bill would amend the Local Government Code to define "photographic monitoring system" and "recorded image." The bill would require a municipality that uses an active photographic monitoring system (system) to install signs meeting certain standards that indicate the presence of a system. A municipality would not be able to use any images captured by a system if they do not post signs complying with the provisions of the bill, and would be required to publish a live video feed on their website of images captured by the system.

The Comptroller of Public Accounts provided information on the impact the bill would have on three cities. The City of Hutto as three red-light cameras and could not estimate the cost of upgrading their system and costs necessary to modify their website to implement the bill's provisions but anticipate the costs would be significant.

The City of Fort Worth has 65 red-light cameras, 210 cameras around water utilities, and 65 cameras around city facilities. The City estimates material and labor costs of $25-$100 per sign, for an aggregated cost of $44,000, would be incurred under the provisions of the bill. The City did not provide an estimate of costs to implement and maintain a live video feed of a system.

The City of Waco has 99 cameras and estimates one-time costs for implementation, including signage, an additional technician poisition, office and technology needs, would be $322,450. The City estimated additional operations costs would total $2,367,697 for fiscal years 2014 to 2018.

LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 83RD LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION


May 1, 2013