Honorable Charles Schwertner, Chair, Senate Committee on Health & Human Services
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB4 by Burkett (Relating to monetary assistance provided by the Department of Family and Protective Services to certain relative or designated caregivers; creating a criminal offense; creating a civil penalty.), Committee Report 2nd House, Substituted
The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions would amend the Family Code as it relates to a caregiver assistance agreement. Under the provisions of the bill, knowingly making or causing a false statement or misrepresentation of a material fact that allows a person to enter into a caregiver assistance agreement would be punishable by a state jail felony or a third degree felony depending on the specific circumstances of the offense.
A third degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for a term from 2 to 10 years and a state jail felony is punishable by confinement in a state jail for a term from 180 days to 2 years or Class A misdemeanor punishment. In addition to confinement, most felony offenses are also subject to an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.
Expanding the list of behaviors for which a criminal penalty is applied is expected to result in increased demands on the correctional resources of counties or of the State due to a potential increase in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement within state correctional institutions. However, this analysis assumes the provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions would not result in a significant impact on the demand for state correctional resources.