SB1451

The unchanged offense covers stealing an unsigned check or similar sight order. It also covers receiving one knowing it was stolen, with intent to use it, sell it or transfer it to someone other than the person from whom it was stolen. The law is not a blanket felony penalty for every bounced check, mistaken receipt or payment dispute. Penal Code 32.24; Final law.

The ordinary Class A misdemeanor range is up to one year in jail, a fine up to $4,000, or both. The ordinary state-jail-felony range is 180 days to two years in state jail, with a possible additional fine up to $10,000. Those are statutory ranges, not a prediction of a particular person’s sentence; other applicable sentencing rules can affect the result. Class A range; State-jail-felony range.

The increase applies only to offenses committed on or after September 1, 2025. If any element occurred before that date, the earlier law applies. All five published bill versions have the same operative text, and no floor amendments are listed. Final law, sections 2–3; Introduced; Senate committee; Senate-passed; House committee; Version index; Amendment index.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

People convicted of this offense face felony-level punishment rather than the former misdemeanor range. The criminal-justice impact statement warns that higher penalties may increase confinement and length of stay, while estimating no significant overall demand on state correctional resources. It reports 72 arrests and seven community-supervision placements for this misdemeanor in fiscal year 2024, with no admissions to state correctional institutions; those are baseline figures, not results of the new law. The reviewed sources do not establish that the increased penalty will reduce theft. Criminal-justice impact statement.

The March 10 fiscal note anticipates no significant state fiscal impact and assumes local enforcement, prosecution, supervision and confinement impacts would not be significant. That estimate does not mean individual defendants face no added burden or that implementation has no cost. The act makes no appropriation. Fiscal note; Final law.