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

SPONSOR HJC

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

03/12/07

HB 446/HJCS

SHORT TITLE Damage to Household Member’s Property

SB

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

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

The House Judiciary Committee Substitute for House Bill 446 adds a new Section of Chapter 30,

Article 15 NMSA 1978 which creates a new criminal offense of criminal damage to property

with intent to threaten or intimidate. 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) the crime is a fourth degree felony. The bill further provides that ownership

interests in the damaged property are not a defense to the crime.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

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

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

resources to handle the increase.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

Neither the AGO nor the PDD have had time to comment on the substitute bill.

House Bill 446/HJCS – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

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

property that he owns with another. 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.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

The substitute bill provides that the crime must include property damage with an intent to

“threaten or intimidate" as to declare a gravity of purpose; and, may likely result in substantial

litigation to tie down exactly what this term means in this instance.

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/csd