TO:	Honorable Dan Patrick, Lieutenant Governor, Senate
FROM:	Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	SB482 by Alvarado (Relating to increasing the criminal penalties for the offenses of assault and harassment committed against certain employees or agents of a utility.), As Passed 2nd House

The bill would increase the criminal penalty for the offense of assault from a Class A misdemeanor to a third degree felony if the defendant assaulted a utility worker while performing their duties, and to a second degree felony if the utility worker was working in a disaster or evacuated area. The bill would increase the criminal penalty for the offense of harassment of a utility worker from a Class B misdemeanor to a Class A misdemeanor and further increase the minimum term of confinement to 180 days if the utility worker is considered a public servant. The bill would furthermore expand the conduct constituting the Class B misdemeanor offense of interference with public duties by including the interference or disruption of a person who is a utility employee or agent while the person is performing a duty within the scope of that employment or agency and subjects the penalty to a possible enhancement to the next higher category if the offense was committed in a disaster or evacuated area.

Increasing the penalty for an existing offense may result in additional demands upon state and local correctional resources due to a possible increase in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement.

In fiscal year 2024, there were 21,225 arrests, 7,907 referrals, 3,081 placements onto adult community supervision, 7 individuals admitted into an adult state correctional institution, and no individuals admitted into a juvenile state correctional institution for a misdemeanor offense of assault which may be increased in certain circumstances under the bill's provisions.

The impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources cannot be determined due to a lack of data to estimate the prevalence of conduct outlined in the bill's provisions that would be subject to increased criminal penalties.