According to the Legislative Budget Board (LBB), no significant fiscal implication to the state is anticipated as a result of HB 2136. The fiscal note assumes that any costs associated with developing, implementing, and maintaining the standardized model criminal citation and citation addendum can be absorbed within the existing resources of the Office of Court Administration and the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, without requiring additional appropriations or staffing.

The LBB also projects no significant fiscal implication for units of local government. Although local law enforcement agencies will be required to adopt citation forms that conform to the statewide model, the fiscal analysis concludes that implementation costs are not expected to create a significant financial burden for local governments.

HB 2136 pursues a worthwhile objective, reducing failures to appear and improving the efficiency of the criminal justice system through clearer, research-based citations. Improving communication with defendants may reduce unnecessary warrants, arrests, and other government enforcement actions without weakening public safety or accountability. However, the bill accomplishes these goals by creating an ongoing statewide administrative program, expanding the responsibilities of the Office of Court Administration, and requiring every law enforcement agency to adopt and periodically update citations that conform to a state-prescribed model.

While the LBB projects no significant fiscal impact, the bill nevertheless grows the institutional footprint of state government by assigning permanent duties to the Office of Court Administration, including stakeholder consultation, user testing, biennial reviews, and statewide dissemination of updated citation standards. It also reduces local discretion by replacing locally developed citation formats with a mandatory statewide model. Although these requirements are administrative rather than regulatory, they represent a continuing expansion of state authority that is not essential to achieving the bill's underlying objectives.

Texas Policy Research recommends that lawmakers vote NO on HB 2136 unless amended as described below. The bill could become consistent with limited-government principles by narrowing the role of the Office of Court Administration and preserving greater local flexibility. Appropriate amendments would include making the model citation advisory rather than mandatory or, at minimum, limiting mandatory statewide requirements to essential statutory information; eliminating or reducing recurring user-testing and reporting mandates; requiring legislative reauthorization through a sunset provision; and ensuring that future substantive changes to required citation content are made by the Legislature rather than through administrative discretion. These changes would preserve the bill's criminal justice reform objectives while reducing government growth and protecting local autonomy.

• Individual Liberty: The bill does not create new crimes, increase criminal penalties, expand law enforcement authority, or impose new restrictions on individual conduct. By requiring clearer, research-based citations that explain court obligations, available alternatives, and options for those unable to pay fines, the bill could reduce failures to appear and the resulting warrants, arrests, and other coercive interactions with the criminal justice system. Although the bill expands administrative functions, its direct effect on individual liberty is generally positive because it seeks to reduce unnecessary government enforcement resulting from misunderstanding rather than misconduct.
• Personal Responsibility: The bill encourages individuals to comply with existing legal obligations by making citation information easier to understand, but it also shifts more responsibility onto government to improve compliance through behavioral design, reminders, and expanded informational resources. It neither weakens personal accountability nor significantly strengthens it, resulting in an overall neutral impact.
• Free Enterprise: The bill does not regulate private businesses, create barriers to entry, impose new licensing or compliance requirements, or otherwise affect market competition. Its provisions are limited to the administration of criminal citations by governmental entities and therefore have no meaningful impact on free enterprise.
• Private Property Rights: The bill does not alter property ownership, land use, eminent domain authority, asset forfeiture, or any other property-related rights. Its provisions relate solely to criminal citation procedures and court administration, leaving private property rights unaffected.
• Limited Government: The bill creates an ongoing statewide administrative program within the Office of Court Administration by requiring the agency to develop, test, review, update, and disseminate standardized citation forms on a recurring basis. It also requires every law enforcement agency in Texas to adopt citations conforming to the state-developed model, reducing local discretion over an administrative function historically managed at the local level. Although the Legislative Budget Board anticipates no significant fiscal impact, the bill nevertheless expands the institutional role of state government and creates recurring administrative duties and statutory mandates. From a limited-government perspective, these structural changes outweigh the bill's otherwise modest scope and support a negative assessment under this principle.