TO:	Honorable David Dewhurst, Lieutenant Governor, Senate
FROM:	John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	SB663 by Nichols (Relating to the continuation and functions of the State Committee of Examiners in the Fitting and Dispensing of Hearing Instruments; providing an administrative penalty. ), As Passed 2nd House

General Revenue-Related Funds, Five-Year Impact:

Fiscal Year	Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds
2012	$8,228
2013	$8,228
2014	$8,228
2015	$8,228
2016	$8,228

All Funds, Five-Year Impact:

Fiscal Analysis

The bill is the Sunset bill for the State Committee of Examiners in the Fitting and Dispensing of Hearing Instruments, a governor-appointed independent licensing board that is administratively attached to the DSHS Professional Licensing and Certification Unit.  The bill contains a number of Sunset Advisory Commission recommendations on the Committee including updates relating to the Committee’s membership and operational structure to meet Sunset model licensing standards regarding eligibility of public members; prohibitions on Committee members; governor designation of the presiding officer; grounds for removal; and a training program for Committee members.  The bill also provides a new Sunset date of 2017 for the Committee’s next review. 
 
Additionally the bill requires the Committee to obtain fingerprint-based criminal history checks on applicants and license holders.

The bill would take effect September 1, 2011. 

Methodology

It is assumed that implementation of the bill would require that 484 additional background and criminal history checks, including Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) fingerprint-based checks, be performed in each fiscal year. The Department of Public Safety (DPS) would conduct these checks.
 
The bill would result in a total increase in revenue of $16,577 in each fiscal year of the biennium from the $34.25 fee collected for the checks paid directly to DPS by the applicants. However, a portion of this fee revenue, $17.25 per check, is returned to the FBI for professional services as required by federal statute; which would result in a cost of $8,349 in each fiscal year.
 
The additional 484 fingerprint-based criminal history checks account for a very small percentage of the criminal history checks DPS facilitates each year, therefore it is assumed that any costs associated with these additional checks can be absorbed within existing DPS resources. DSHS also assumes that they would be able to absorb any costs associated with the fingerprint-based checks as well as any other provisions in the bill within existing resources. 

Local Government Impact

No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.