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

SPONSOR Silva

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/28/07

HB 1059

SHORT TITLE Photo ID Placards for Disabled Persons

SB

ANALYST Earnest

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$250.0 Non-recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to appropriation in the General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Taxation and Revenue Department (TRD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 1059 appropriates $250 thousand from the general fund to the Motor Vehicle

Division (MVD) of the Taxation and Revenue Department (TRD) to recall 80 thousand placards

for use by disabled persons and replace them with new ones that include a picture on the inside

of the placard covered by a flap, a hologram to make duplication difficult and an imprinted

expiration date.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $250 thousand contained in this bill is a nonrecurring expense to the

general fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year

2008 shall revert to the general fund.

House Bill 1059 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

According to TRD, the bill is designed to address the problem of fraudulent use of handicapped

placards in vehicle parking. Photo placards would provide an efficient system allowing officers

to determine if people using a placard and parking space are entitled to do so. The proposed

changes in statute would allow MVD to replace all existing permanent placards with a new-

formatted placard with a person’s photo and an accompanying placard ID card, and transition

from over-the-counter issuance of placards to centralized issuance and mailing from a vendor’s

central facility.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

The $250 appropriation provided by the proposed legislation would be sufficient to facilitate

replacing the current placards with new ones. The General Appropriation Act (HB2) includes an

additional $50 thousand in FY08 to continue the project.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

House Bill 1059 relates to an appropriation in the General Appropriation Act for the Motor

Vehicle Division to replace placards on a recurring basis beginning in FY08.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

TRD indicates that provisions of the proposed measure may conflict with provisions of SB-172

(placards for pregnant women), especially if SB-172 is signed after SB-277/HB-1059. If this

occurs, the provisions of this proposed measure will be overridden by the format listed in SB-

172. This would also occur if SB-277/HB-1059 is signed after SB-172; the format in SB-

277/HB-1059 will override the format in SB-172.

BE/mt