Honorable Donna Campbell, Chair, Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs & Military Installations
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB185 by Perry (Relating to the enforcement of state and federal laws governing immigration by certain governmental entities.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
The bill would amend the Local Government Code to prohibit a municipality, county or a certain special district, employees of certain local entities and a district attorney or criminal district attorney from adopting rules, orders, ordinances, or policies that prohibit enforcement of state and federal immigration laws. Under the provisions of the bill, a local entity would not be permitted to prohibit certain employees or other individuals under the direction of the agency from participating in certain activities associated with the immigration status of certain individuals. The bill would deny state grants to an entity for the following year after determination that the entity adopted such rules or policies or prohibited the enforcement of immigration laws.
Any citizen residing in the jurisdiction of an entity described above would be allowed to file a complaint with the Attorney General. The Attorney General would be required to issue a determination and provide written notification indicating the determination, including if the entity would be denied state funds for the state fiscal year following the determination. After finding a complaint valid, the Attorney General would be permitted to file a petition for a writ of mandamus or apply for other equitable relief to compel the entity to comply with the provisions of the bill. The Attorney General would be permitted to recover reasonable expenses incurred in the legal proceedings. The bill would require the Comptroller of Public Accounts to adopt rules to implement the denial of state funds to political subdivisions uniformly among the state agencies from which the state funds are distributed.
According to the Office of the Attorney General, any legal work resulting from the passage of the bill could be reasonably absorbed with current resources.
According to the Office of Court Administration, the bill provisions are not anticipated to have a significant fiscal implication on the workloads of the judiciary.
Local Government Impact
There could be a fiscal impact to local governmental entities depending on if the entity has such rules, ordinances, or policies relating to provisions in the bill, the number of complaints filed by individuals and the number of complaints investigated and pursued by the Attorney General.
According to the Texas Municipal League (TML), the cost of the bill cannot be determined.
According to the Texas Association of Counties (TAC), Harris County Sheriffs' office reported no fiscal impact.
Source Agencies:
304 Comptroller of Public Accounts, 407 Commission on Law Enforcement, 212 Office of Court Administration, Texas Judicial Council, 302 Office of the Attorney General