BILL ANALYSIS AND FISCAL IMPACT REPORT	Page 1 of  2

DATE:  February 27, 2001	Submitted by: TAXATION AND REVENUE DEPT.
	T. GLENN ELLINGTON, SECRETARY
BILL NUMBER: HGUAC Substitute for HB - 624

SPONSOR: House Government and Urban Affairs Committee

BILL SHORT TITLE: Increasing the amount of Local Government Corrections Fee added to Penalty Assessment Misdemeanors

DESCRIPTION: This bill authorizes the use of funds in the state-administered local government corrections fund for alternatives to incarceration. The bill increases the amount of add-on penalty assessment both for mail-in PAs, as well as fines imposed by municipal and magistrate courts from the current $10 to a proposed $20. The additional $10 is intended, but not mandated, to be devoted to alternatives to incarceration. This applies only to non-Bernalillo County citations. This will increase the total PA add-on amount to $49 for citations issued outside Bernalillo County. (Note, the total within Bernalillo County is $53.) This is in addition to the underlying, general fund penalty amount that ranges from $10 to $500 and averages about $35.

EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2001

FISCAL IMPACT (Thousands of dollars):  		Note: Parenthesis ( ) indicate a revenue loss:

		Recurring or		
Estimated Impact on Revenues	Nonrecurring	Funds 	
	 FY 2002 	Full Year	     Impact     t     	             Affected          .             	
	negative	negative	Recurring	State General Fund	
	1,600*	1,600*	Recurring	Local Gov't Correction Fund	
	Negative**	Negative**	Non-recurring	Traffic Safety Training Fee	
	Negative**	Negative**	Non-recurring	Court Automation Fund	
	Negative**	Negative**	Non-recurring	Judicial Education Fund	
	Negative**	Negative**	Non-recurring	Judicial Facilities Fee (Bern Co Jail)	
	Negative**	Negative**	Non-recurring	Brain Injury	

About 160,000 mail-in PAs were paid in FY 2000 from locations outside Bernalillo County. 

* This estimate includes only the impact of this bill from mail-in PA’s. Prior experience indicates that about 40% of fines are generated from court convictions and 60% from mail-in PAs. The research conducted for this bill, however,  implies a surprisingly low percentage of citations issued in Bernalillo County and Albuquerque are paid through the mail-in PA. This undoubtedly affects the ratio between mail-in and court convictions for non-Bernalillo County citations. For budgeting purposes, perhaps this unadjusted amount from mail-ins should be used without augmentation for court convictions.

**  Any payments received after August 1 are treated as partial payments of the amount that would be due including the new $10 jail fee. Thus, all other distributions (including the general fund amount) are less than they should be. Ordinarily, this is a relatively trivial issue, but the amount of this change is significant. When the Judicial Facilities $10/$14 went in place following the 1999 session, this effect was pronounced.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPACT: minimal. The “cheat sheet” with total amounts calculated including the add-ons will have to be changed and distributed to state and local law enforcement officials. The PA system will have to be reprogrammed to accommodate this change. The courts will incur minor costs in reprogramming the judicial information system to accommodate this change.

OTHER IMPACTS AND ISSUES:
1.	The research for this bill disclosed the surprising statistic that only 5.5% of violations are paid through the mail-in procedures of the PA system for citations issued in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. This may be the result of a change in policy by Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department and Albuquerque Police Department to cite all motor vehicle violators into metro court. This is a more assured mechanism for collecting fines, perhaps, than the MVD-administered PA system. The only enforcement mechanism for failure to pay a PA by mail before the expiration of 30 days is that the violators driver’s license is suspended until payment (with an additional $25 reinstatement fee) is received. The research did note a drop from 175,000 PAs paid in FY 1998 to 170,000 PAs in FY 1999 and FY 2000. This drop could easily be the result of a change of policy regarding citations.

2.	During the interim, data from traffic safety fee will be analyzed in detail to determine the proportion of add-on fines originating in Albuquerque Metro Court. This data will be reported to the legislative interim committees when available.