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

SPONSOR Griego

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/24/2007

2/5/2007 HB

SHORT TITLE Photo I.D. Disability Placards

SB 277

ANALYST Schuss

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$250.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Governor’s Commission on Disability (GCD)

Taxation and Revenue Department (TRD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 277 appropriates $250,000 from the General Fund to the Motor Vehicle Division of

the Taxation and Revenue Department for the purpose of replacing current placards for people

with a disability with photo-identified placards. This would involve recalling eighty thousand

placards that are currently in use by those with a disability.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $250,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the General Fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2008 shall revert

to the General Fund.

This will potentially create continuing increased costs to supply the placard.

Senate Bill 277 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

GCD notes that this bill was introduced to continue the effort of preventing parking abuse.

There are individuals who borrow a placard to park in an accessible parking space. When a

placard has expired, a black magic marker can be used to change the date. This is illegal activity.

The new placards will have a picture of the placard holder and the date will be imprinted on the

placard along with a hologram to prevent duplication. The picture will be covered by a flap so

those who do not wish to have their face showing will not have it visible.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

GCD states that there would be an increase in the number of parking placards issued and more

staff time will be needed to process the documentation.

TRD notes that the $250,000 appropriation provided by the proposed legislation would be suffi-

cient to facilitate replacing the current placards with new ones. Maintaining the new systems in

future years would impose additional costs on the Department, however.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

TRD notes the following technical issue:

Provisions of the proposed measure may conflict with provisions of SB-172 (placards for

pregnant women), especially if SB-172 is signed after SB-277. If so, the provisions of the pro-

posed measure will be overridden by the format listed in SB-172. This would also occur if SB-

277 is signed after SB-172; the format in SB-277 will override the format in SB 172.

BS/csd