PD-0577-23 12/20/2023
1. “Regarding the assessment of the state consolidated court cost, which date controls – the offense date or the date of conviction?”
2. “Regarding the assessment of the state consolidated court cost for offenses committed before January 1, 2020, which date controls – the offense date or the date of conviction?”
3. “Did the court of appeals err in determining that Section 51.608 of the Government Code is the controlling law in effect on the date the offense was committed rather than the pre-January 1, 2020, Section 133.102(a)(1) of the Local Government Code?”
Bradshaw committed a felony in 2019. After he was convicted in October of 2022, the trial court assessed a “state consolidated court cost” of $185. This was in accord with the statute in effect at the time of conviction. See Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code Ann. § 133.102(a)(1) (“A person convicted of an offense shall pay as a court cost, in addition to all other costs . . . $185 on conviction of a felony[.]”). That amount used to be $133, but it was changed as part of the Cost Act passed in 2019, effective January 1, 2020. Act of May 23, 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., ch. 1352, 2019 Tex. Gen. Laws 3982.
On appeal, Bradshaw argued that the proper amount was $133 because the Cost Act’s enabling language says, “An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.” The court of appeals acknowledged this but disagreed that this compelled a lesser amount. It reasoned that “the law in effect on the date the offense was committed” included Tex. Gov’t Code § 51.608, which says:
Notwithstanding any other law that establishes the amount of a court cost collected by the clerk of a district, county, or statutory county court from a defendant in a criminal proceeding based on the law in effect on the date the offense was committed, the amount of a court cost imposed on the defendant in a criminal proceeding must be the amount established under the law in effect on the date the defendant is convicted of the offense.
Because this statute unambiguously ties court costs to the date of conviction, the $185 in effect in 2019 is correct. Chief Justice Gray dissented. He asked how Section 51.608, “passed six years before the amendment and enabling language at issue, has the effect of negating the language of the more recent statute.”
Bradshaw picks up where Chief Justice Gray left off. He adds that the practical result of the majority opinion is that it eliminates the pre-January 1, 2020 amount of $133. “[F]or this construction to stand, there should need to be some evidence of legislative intent to eliminate the prior $133 fee moving forward.”
