| TO: | Honorable Joan Huffman, Chair, Senate Committee on State Affairs |
| FROM: | John McGeady, Assistant Director Sarah Keyton, Assistant Director Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | SB9 by Hughes (Relating to election integrity; increasing criminal penalties; creating a criminal offense; creating civil penalties.), As Introduced |
The bill would amend the Code of Criminal Procedure and Election Code as they relate to election increasing criminal penalties and creating criminal offenses for election related offenses. Under the provisions of the bill, the statute of limitations for any felony offense under the Election Code would be five years and some misdemeanors would be increased to a state jail felony.
A state jail felony is punishable by confinement in a state jail for a term from 180 days to 2 years and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $10,000 or Class A misdemeanor punishment. A Class A misdemeanor is punishable by confinement in county jail for a term not to exceed one year and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $4,000.
Increasing the penalty for any criminal offense is expected to result in additional demands upon the correctional resources of the counties or of the State due to longer terms of supervision in the community or longer terms of confinement within state correctional institutions. In fiscal year 2018, for offenses in the bill that are increased from a misdemeanor to a state jail felony, fewer than ten people were arrested, placed on community supervision, or incarcerated. This analysis assumes the provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions would not result in a significant impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources.
| Source Agencies: |
| LBB Staff: | WP, LM, SPa
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