Honorable Joe Moody, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB2380 by Vasut (Relating to credit toward payment of fines and costs for certain defendants.), As Introduced
The fiscal implications of the bill cannot be determined because the revenue impacts due to a lack of reliable data needed to project the number of cases effected by the credit increases proposed by the bill cannot be estimated.
The bill would increase the credit toward payment of fines and costs for certain defendants from $100 to $150, if those defendants perform community service, work in a county jail program, or serve time in the county jail in satisfaction of their fines and costs. The bill would also require that court which imposed a fine and costs for a misdemeanor punishable by fine only to give the credit to defendants who spend time in pretrial confinement for another offense if the pretrial confinement occurred after commission of the misdemeanor.
Based on information provided by the Comptroller of Public Accounts, the credit increase purposed by the bill could result in decreased revenues to the state; however, due to a lack of reliable data that would determine the number of respective cases, the impact to state revenues cannot be estimated.
Local Government Impact
Based on information provided by the Office of Court Administration (OCA), a significant decrease in fine or court cost collections to local governments is not anticipated because judicial waivers of costs and fines will only occur in cases where defendants are not currently paying the fines and costs. Although the overall impact of the bill would vary by county and municipality based upon the volume of cases, OCA anticipates that some local governments should see reduced jail costs in light of the increased credit.
Source Agencies:
212 Office of Court Administration, Texas Judicial Council, 304 Comptroller of Public Accounts