NOTE: As provided in LFC policy, this report is
intended only for use by the standing finance committees of the
legislature. The Legislative Finance Committee does not assume
responsibility for the accuracy of the information in this report when used for
other purposes.
The most recent FIR
version (in HTML & Adobe PDF formats) is available on the Legislative
Website. The Adobe PDF version includes
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obtained from the LFC in Suite 101 of the State Capitol Building North.
F I S C A
L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR:
|
Gonzales
|
DATE TYPED:
|
02/24/03
|
HB
|
521
|
SHORT TITLE:
|
Taos Teen Court
|
SB
|
|
|
ANALYST:
|
Hayes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
APPROPRIATION
Appropriation
Contained
|
Estimated
Additional Impact
|
Recurring
or
Non-Rec
|
Fund
Affected
|
FY03
|
FY04
|
FY03
|
FY04
|
|
|
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$55.0
|
|
|
Recurring
|
General
Fund
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Parenthesis
( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Duplicates SB 486
SOURCES
OF INFORMATION
Responses
Received From
Department
of Finance and Administration, Local Government Division
Department
of Health (DOH)
SUMMARY
Synopsis
of Bill
House Bill 521
appropriates $55.0 from the general fund to the Local Government Division of
the Department of Finance for the purpose of funding the Taos
County
teen court program.
Significant
Issues
- Teen
court is a program designed for first-time teen offenders to keep their
records clean. A jury composed of
local teens does not decide innocence or guilt of an offender, but assesses
the sentence of the offender. The
offender must openly admit commission of a delinquent act in front of the
teen jury. If the offender admits
to a delinquent act, accepts the “sentence” of the teen jury and
successfully completes it, then the delinquent act is dismissed and the offender
pays no fine.
- For
FY02, a legislative appropriation totaling ($55.0) was made to the 8th
Judicial District Court in Taos
to fund a teen court program. The
court did not originally request this funding and did not want the responsibility
of teen court. District courts are prioritizing
drug court operations instead. In
subsequent years, the 8th Judicial District Court has not
requested funding for this program.
As a result, the Taos
County
teen court has had to seek funding elsewhere.
- DFA’s
Local Government Division responded to LFC’s request for analysis on HB 521
by stating “This is not appropriate for Local Government Division to
administer [teen court] but by the Administrative Office of the Courts.” It appears neither the court nor the
Local Government Division believe it is a function of their agency.
- Teen
courts exists in other jurisdictions around the state, but are usually funded
by either the county or municipality in which it operates. LFC does not believe teen court is a
function that the State of New
Mexico should
permanently fund although it acknowledges the merits of the program’s
goal. Start-up funding has been
provided by the state to districts or counties in the past, but the
expectation is that counties, schools, volunteers, municipalities or other
community-based organizations will provide continued support for teen
court programs.
- No
performance data has been provided to the LFC regarding the number of teen
court participants, rate of teens completing the program, if offenders
commit additional delinquent acts, etc.; therefore, the level of success
of teen court is unknown.
- According
to DOH, there are currently 22 teen courts in operation around New
Mexico. Many of them have received funding from
the DFA/DWI program (in addition to county and municipal funding). It may be that local municipal courts
are the most appropriate to fund and administer teen court programs since they
mainly involve misdemeanor violations.
Perhaps the Taos
County
teen court could also apply for funding from DFA’s DWI program to support
it.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The appropriation of
$55.0 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining
at the end of FY04 shall revert to the general fund.
POSSIBLE QUESTIONS
1. Why is state funding being requested for a county-sponsored program?
Since the state provided
Taos County with start-up
money several years ago, why is the county requesting continued funding year after year? Why
aren’t county funds or
municipal court funds being
sought to support teen
court?
2. What is
the success rate of teen
court ? How many
teenagers have appeared in teen
court during the last fiscal year? What is the most common type of offense being reviewed by teen court ?
CMH/njw