Bill Caption

Relating to a grant program to fund domestic violence high risk teams.

Fiscal Notes

State

The fiscal implications of the bill cannot be determined at this time due to the number of unknown variables such as the number of grants and the value of grants.

Local Government

There could be costs to a local governmental entity that chooses to establish a Domestic Violence High Risk Team. However, it is assumed that local governmental entities would establish a team only if sufficient funds were available or it would not result in a negative fiscal impact; therefore, no significant fiscal impact is anticipated.

Bill Analysis

SB 1706 would amend Government Code to require the Office of the Attorney General to establish and administer a grant program for domestic violence prevention. The team would be composed of law enforcement officers, prosecutors, community supervision and corrections departments, victim advocates, nonprofit organizations that provide services or shelter to victims of family violence, and medical personnel. The attorney general would request and award grants to fund the team.

Vote Recommendation Notes

Setting up a way for the attorney general to coordinate with local governments in order to prevent domestic violence may well be sound public policy in furtherance of victims' rights. However, this legislation is written in a way that is vague and ill-defined as to the mechanism by which its aims would be achieved. Our concern about this legislation is that there is simply no way to know at this point what it would do, how it would do it, or at what cost. We urge legislators to exercise caution before passing legislation with so many unknown variables. 

Due to the lack of information available to determine the answers to those unknown variables, there is no basis to determine how this legislation would impact our liberty principles. Therefore we remain neutral on SB 1706. 

The House recently past a substantively similar bill, HB 3327. Our analysis of that bill was the same.