Vote Recommendation | Economic Freedom | Property Rights | Personal Responsibility | Limited Government | Individual Liberty |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Vote No; Amend | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral |
There is no significant fiscal implication to the State.
Local Government
There would be costs associated with the bill. Depending on the
processes and resources of a county, additional staff could be necessary
to comply with the provisions of the bill.
Yoakum County
reported there would be costs of hiring another employee to comply with
the reporting requirements of the bill, the cost would be $60,000 per
year including benefits.
The intent behind this legislation is to create a searchable database so that law enforcement and first responders can have the information they need readily available in cases dealing with an incapacitated person who is under guardianship. However, the actual implementation of the proposed legislation may be costly to local governments. Also, it is worth noting that creating a central database with the private information relating to a vulnerable population, even though well intentioned, may present more problems than solutions.
Because this creates a new state mandate that counties would have to comply with at some considerable cost, including new staffing requirements, the bill as written would violate our limited government principle. If the bill were amended to create an optional registry which guardians could sign up for and which could be made available to relevant law enforcement officials and emergency service providers without creating any new mandates we would withdraw our objection. Absent such an amendment we recommend that legislators oppose HB 3424.
The second chamber sponsor is Senator Zaffirini.