| TO: | Honorable David Dewhurst, Lieutenant Governor, Senate |
| FROM: | Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | SB124 by Rodríguez (Relating to the punishment for the offense of tampering with certain governmental records based on certain reporting for school districts and open-enrollment charter schools. ), As Passed 2nd House |
The bill would amend the Penal Code to enhance the offense of tampering with certain governmental records based on certain reporting for school districts and open-enrollment charter schools from the misdemeanor level to a third-degree or second-degree felony, depending on the circumstances. The bill would also amend the Penal Code to enhance the penalty for certain acts of official oppression from a Class A misdemeanor to a third-degree felony if the public servant acted with the intent to impair the accuracy of the Public Education Management System data reported to the Texas Education Agency.
Increasing the penalty for any criminal offense is expected to increase demands on state and/or county correctional agency resources due to longer terms of community supervision, county jail confinement, state correctional institution confinement, and/or parole. However, in the case of the bill, it is assumed that the number of offenders supervised or incarcerated under this statute would not significantly impact state correctional agencies' workload and programs.
| Source Agencies: | 701 Central Education Agency
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| LBB Staff: | UP, ESi, JBi, GG, LM
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