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

SPONSOR Lopez

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

02/02/07

HB

SHORT TITLE Damage to Household Member’s Property

SB 454

ANALYST Hanika Ortiz

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Public Defender Department (PDD)

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)

Corrections Department (CD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 454 adds a new Section of Chapter 30, Article 15 NMSA 1978 which creates a new

criminal offense of damage to a household member’s property without consent from all owners

of the property. Whoever commits this crime is guilty of a petty misdemeanor, except that when

the damage to the property amounts to more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) he is guilty of a

fourth degree felony. A household member is any spouse, former spouse or family member,

including a relative, parent, present or former stepparent, present or former in-law, co-parent of a

child or person with whom a person has had a continuing personal relationship. Cohabitation is

not necessary to be a household member.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

Any fiscal impact on the judiciary would be proportional to the enforcement of this law and

commenced prosecutions. There may be an increase in the amount of work that needs to be done

by the courts, thus requiring additional resources to handle increase.

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

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

enforcement of this law and commenced prosecutions. New laws, amendments to existing laws

Senate Bill 454 – Page

2

and new hearings have the potential to increase caseloads in the courts, thus requiring additional

resources to handle the increase.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Under current law, criminal damage to property consists of intentionally damaging any real or

personal property of another without the consent of the owner of the property. The penalties are

the same as are in the bill.

The bill attempts to address the issue of whether a person can be guilty of criminal damage to

property that he owns with another. The current criminal damage to property statute already

applies to household members when the property is not jointly owned by the alleged offender,

because the property is “property of another". PDD reports that the problem with this new

legislation is that it makes it possible for a household member with a 1% interest in property to

have the person with 99% ownership in the damaged property to be charged with a crime.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

Duplicate of HB 446

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

This legislation is related to the Family Violence Protection Act, NMSA 1978, sections 40-13-1,

et seq. which is intended to prevent domestic abuse. Section 40-13-2(C)(6) defines "domestic

abuse" as any incident by a household member against another household member resulting in

criminal damage to property and allows the victim to obtain a protective order against the

offending household member.

AHO/mt