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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Jennings

DATE TYPED 02/07/05 HB

SHORT TITLE Identity Theft as a Felony

SB 260

ANALYST Wilson

APPROPRIATION

Appropriation Contained Estimated Additional Impact Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY05

FY06

FY05

FY06

See Narrative

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC

Administrative Office of the District Attorneys (AODA)

Corrections Department (CD)

Public Defender Department (PDD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 260 amends Subsection C of Section 30-16-24.1 to make the penalty for theft of

identify a fourth degree felony. Current law states that whoever commits theft of identify is

guilty of a misdemeanor.

Significant Issues

The PDD notes this bill does not equate its penalty to any amount taken as do the statutes for lar-

ceny and unlawful use of a credit card. There may be a double jeopardy problem if a person is

convicted of both identity theft and unlawful use of a credit card, for example.

Albuquerque White Collar Detective Chad Melvin has stated there are approximately 300-400

cases of fraud or forgery that involve identity theft every month. This crime is happening with

increasing frequency.

Senate Bill 260-- Page 2

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

There will be a minimal administrative cost for statewide update, distribution, and documenta-

tion of statutory changes. Any additional fiscal impact on the judiciary would be proportional to

the enforcement of this law and commenced prosecutions. New laws and increased penalties

have the potential to increase caseloads in the courts, thus requiring additional resources to han-

dle the increase.

The fiscal implications are indeterminable at this time. However, as various laws have been

passed either creating new offenses or enhancing penalties district attorneys caseloads have in-

creased. The AODA claims district attorneys have had minimal budget and FTE increases to

deal with the increased workload adequately.

This bill will increase costs to the CD to a moderate to substantial degree as a result of making

the crime a new felony. Defendants may now be sent to prison for the offense which would re-

sult in an increase to the incarcerated population. However, the vast majority of those convicted

under the law will be placed on probation with restitution ordered. The CD’s probation and pa-

role will not have sufficient staff to properly supervise the new cases and disperse the restitution

to the victims. This will greatly increase the burden on our Criminal Obligation Payment Sys-

tem (COPS). Hundreds of new cases may enter the system every month.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

The CD believes in both the short term and the long term, this bill will moderately to substan-

tially increase the administrative prison staff and probation and parole staff because of the in-

creasing prison population and probation caseloads.

The AODA also believes this bill will result in more cases referred to district attorneys for prose-

cution thus increasing current workloads.

DW/njw