TexasCHLforum.com

ELB wrote:I certainly was under the impression that CHL fees were supposed to be no higher than what it takes to process an application.

The basic $140 application fee and the $25 fee for change of address or modification are built into the statute (now 15 years old).

Only the renewal fee is flexible and supposed to represent the cost of processing a renewal [GC §411.186(b)].

BTW, IMHO, this state of affairs illustrates how little political voice CHL holders have in Austin.

The length of processing applications and renewals has been outside the statutory limits for over a year. The number of applications has increased, and there is no sign that it will return to earlier levels. Even if 400,000 people have a CHL by now, there are still about 15 million to go. The budget should have been increased, and it was not.

We certainly have friends in Austin, including a hard-worked lobbyist and the Governor. All the CHL-related bills that came up for a vote passed; and probably all that died in committee would have, except perhaps for the parking-lot bill.

However, the budget shows that the concerns of CHL holders suffer the same fate as all that do not have an unrelenting advocate with the political capital to produce results.

- Jim

I just ran across the proposed 2010-2011 DPS budget:

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/dps_lar_vol_1.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(Be warned: This is an 8-MB file.)

Some interesting points:

The budget for the Concealed Handgun Licensing Division is broken out (on page 10)

Actual 2007 ...... $5,555,039
Estimated 2008 .. 5,467,950
Budgeted 2009 ... 4,518,796
Requested 2010 .. 4,518,796
Requested 2011 .. 4,518,796

That's right: with an increase in applications of 30% or so, the budget request is for the same amount of money as the current fiscal year.

For perspective, the entire DPS budget request for 2010 is about $114 million, so CHL is about 4% of the whole.

In 2008 (the last full year for which data is available) DPS issued 73,090 licenses and also processed fewer than 500 that were denied. At an estimated $100 per application, that comes out to more than $7 million in revenue.

In other words, CHL fees are bringing in about $4.5 million more than DPS spends processing them.

Unless I'm missing some piece of information, something is rotten in Austin.

- Jim