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

SPONSOR King

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/1/06

HB 735

SHORT TITLE

TORRANCE COUNTY INCARCERATION

EXPENSES

SB

ANALYST Hadwiger

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$700.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Corrections Department (CD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 735 appropriates $700 thousand from the general fund to the Local Government Divi-

sion (LGD) of the Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) in FY07 for Torrance

County incarceration expenses incurred by housing state prisoners.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $700 thousand contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general

fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY07 would revert to

the general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Several counties (San Miguel, Taos, Rio Arriba, Socorro, San Juan Curry, Los Alamos) have

legislation pending this year that would reimburse them for the cost of housing prisoners that are

awaiting state custody for various reasons. Collectively, these bills reflect concerns that counties

are getting stuck with the bill for housing prisoners who have violated parole or are charged with

a parole violation; while on parole, are charged with a violation of local, state, tribal, federal or

international law; are awaiting transportation and commitment to the corrections department fol-

House Bill 735 – Page

2

lowing the pronouncement of a judgment, sentence or an order of confinement; are charged with

a violation of probation by the corrections department or by a district court; are sentenced, or-

dered or removed by the district court to incarceration in a county detention facility for a felony

conviction; or are incarcerated on the basis of an arrest-and-hold order on a warrant issued by the

corrections department. DFA indicated concern about the structure of some of the other bills,

which would appropriate funds to the Board of Finance, which lacks a process for distributing

funds to local governments. This bill is preferable to that approach in that funds are appropriated

to the Local Government Division; however, DFA indicates that a better approach might be to

appropriate the funds directly to the Department of Corrections, which is best able to determine

the prisoners who are properly categorized for reimbursement.

This reimbursement may be particularly important to Torrance County which suffered a signifi-

cant setback in county finances in 2005, resulting in the County seeking a loan from the Board of

Finance.

The Corrections Department (DOC) indicated concern that the language in this bill might pre-

vent expenditure of the appropriation for its intended purpose. In particular, DOC noted that

similar bills from other individual counties (requesting appropriations for individuals county fa-

cilities to pay the incarceration costs of housing certain inmates) do not use the term state pris-

oner, but have indicated that the individuals covered for payment are those charged with or con-

victed of violations of state law who have allegedly violated their conditions of parole (including

being charged with committing a new crime while on parole); violated their conditions of proba-

tion; are awaiting transportation and commitment to DOC following the pronouncement of a

judgment and sentence; are placed in the county detention facility by the judge due to a felony

conviction; and are incarcerated on the basis of an arrest and hold order or warrant issued by the

DOC. DOC assumed that Torrance County is, via this bill, also seeking payment for these same

categories of inmates or prisoners, although a good number of these prisoners would not be state

prisoners (with state prisoners defined as those prisoners that end up being sent to the custody of

the DOC for incarceration in a Department operated prison or in a privately operated prison in

Santa Rosa or Hobbs that houses inmates sent to the custody of the DOC).

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

DOC indicated There may be a minimal to moderate administrative burden placed on the De-

partment because it may have to provide certain information (such as the names of individuals on

probation or parole who have an arrest and hold order placed on them, etc.) to DFA to help DFA

verify the incarceration costs for purposes of helping DFA pay the incarceration costs to the

county. DOC pledged to make every reasonable effort to absorb this administrative burden

without adding new staff, but indicated it is difficult to determine the exact amount of adminis-

trative burden placed on the department by this bill. The bill could increase the administrative

costs associated with the department working with DFA to help DFA verify and process the

county’s bills, and these costs could be significant. There is no appropriation in the bill to the

department to help offset or absorb these increased administrative costs.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

HB735 relates to HB769, which would appropriate $1.5 million to reimburse Torrance county

for the cost of incarcerating state prisoners in county facilities; to HB734 which would appropri-

ate $300.0 to help Torrance County to employ four more Torrance county sheriff deputies for the

House Bill 735 – Page

3

cops in schools program; and to HB733 which would appropriate $131 thousand pay off a Board

of Finance loan to Torrance County.

ALTERNATIVES

DOC suggested one alternative is to use a more global approach that has the potential to help all

of the county facilities (such as the approach used in HB 264 and SB 419) instead of trying to

help just one county.

Another alternative might be to consider language consistent with that in other similar bills of-

fered by other counties whereby Torrance County would be reimbursed for the costs of housing

individuals charged with or convicted of a violation of state law who:

(1) have violated parole or are charged with a parole violation;

(2) while on parole, are charged with a violation of local, state, tribal, federal or interna-

tional law;

(3) are awaiting transportation and commitment to the corrections department following

the pronouncement of a judgment, sentence or an order of confinement;

(4) are charged with a violation of probation by the corrections department or by a district

court;

(5) are sentenced, ordered or removed by the district court to incarceration in a county de-

tention facility for a felony conviction; or

(6) are incarcerated on the basis of an arrest-and-hold order on a warrant issued by the

Corrections Department.

Another alternative would be to amend the bill with broader language, i.e. “for Torrance County

incarceration expenses.”

DH/mt