By Elna Christopher
Director of Media Relations
Rep. Burt Solomons (R-Carrollton) held a news conference Jan. 12 with numerous local officials to announce the filing of HJR 56, a constitutional amendment that would make the state either pay for unfunded mandates or absolve local governments from carrying them out if the state does not provide appropriated funds or reimbursements.
At his news conference in the Capitol, Solomons strongly urged local officials to talk to their representatives and ask them to sign up as co-sponsors of the bill. Time is of the essence for officials to speak with their lawmakers, he told TAC after the news conference. Solomons hopes to get most of the House to sign on and will be working to do so during the week of Jan. 17.
TAC joins Solomons in recommending that you contact your representatives at once about this important legislation. The more who sign on, the more likely it is that the resolution will finally make it to the Calendars Committee and get to the House floor for a vote.
TAC Executive Director Gene Terry issued a statement at the news conference, thanking Solomons for filing the resolution and recalling past attempts by supportive legislators to ban unfunded mandates. Oldham County Judge Don Allred and Dallas County Commissioner Mike Cantrell spoke at the news conference on behalf of the County Judges and Commissioners Association and the Texas Conference of Urban Counties, respectively.
If passed by the Legislature, the amendment would be on the ballot in November of this year and, if voters approved it, take effect Jan. 1, 2012.
Counties are not alone in bearing the burden of unfunded mandates, and other legislators are taking action on several fronts, hopefully causing those legislators to consider the impact on local governments before they pass bills that would financially burden local governments and their property taxpayers. Bills and resolutions filed that address the problem at other levels of government include one by incoming Rep. James White (R-Lufkin). His bill would exempt school districts from complying with state educational mandates that carry a price tag, unless the state allocates the appropriate amount of funding to cover the costs.
Even Gov. Rick Perry has taken to condemning unfunded mandates by the state upon local governments, as he continues his campaign against mandates from Washington. The Dallas Morning News recently quoted Perry this way, "We need to look at all the unfunded mandates that are on our books, that we in our wisdom in Austin, Texas, said here is what you need to do." He added that those decisions are best left to local entities. And while he has been criticizing Washington regulations put on the states, he said, "If it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander." Likewise, the Associated Press reported that the governor “plans to propose reforms of unfunded mandates on local governments, or laws that require them to make expenditures but without giving them the funds to do so.”
The campaign by Perry and others against Washington mandates has translated into a resolution being filed by Rep. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe). The House concurrent resolution asks the federal government to end its practice of passing unfunded mandates to the state level. Such complaints targeted at the federal government demonstrate that lawmakers understand the undue burden caused by unfunded mandates that come from above; yet the Texas Legislature has been unwilling thus far to deal with the issue as it relates to the state’s imposing additional costs on local governments.
By Paul Emerson
TAC State Financial Analyst
Comptroller Susan Combs released the state’s 2012-13 Biennial Revenue Estimate, which anticipates $72.2 billion will be available in General Revenue-Related funds for the upcoming biennium. This figure marks the certification amount the Legislature will be able to spend.
Offsetting the certification amount is what’s anticipated to be a negative $4.3 billion ending balance for the current biennium (2010-11). This amount includes approximately $400 million in savings from recent agencies revenue reductions. With eight months still remaining in FY2011, further revenue collections are likely to reduce the current negative ending balance.
Another $866 million is tagged for future transfers to the Rainy Day Fund. At the end of the 2012-13 biennium, the Rainy Day Fund is projected to increase to $9.4 billion.
Now that the BRE has been released, according to some, the projected revenue shortfall is between $15 billion - $27 billion. This estimated shortfall is primarily based on the amount needed to continue the current level of services to the people of Texas. More details of the shortfall will be known after the General Appropriations Act is released next week.
For more information on this article, contact Paul Emerson, TAC state financial analyst, at (800) 456-5974 or paule@county.org.
By Tim Brown
CIP Senior Analyst
The new weekly format for this newsletter presented us with an opportunity to provide county officials and other readers with a status report on fiscal notes. Though the race for speaker of the House is over, the speaker has not yet released committee assignments. This is important to mention because fiscal notes are required only for bills that will be heard in committee.
Consequently, while we have received requests for fiscal information on 19 bills so far, the real flood of requests has yet to reach us. TAC State Financial Analyst Paul Emerson and I have responded on all but two bills:
Emerson is working on SB 273 by Uresti, relating to the powers and duties of certain public improvement districts, and I am working on SB 180 by Estes, relating to the use of eminent domain authority (the companion bill is HB 279 by Geren).
These bills, along with all of the others we’ve worked on for the last two months, are those that the Legislative Budget Board has tried to get an early jump on; they obviously have not been assigned to a committee, but the LBB is trying to get as much work done now as they can so as to even out the work load during the session.
The flood of fiscal note requests should start to build as soon as the committees get organized and then crest sometime in March or April. (It is too soon to tell whether the Census Bureau’s scheduled release of redistricting data in March will impact this timeline.) For the bills listed above, or in any of the forthcoming issues of this newsletter, please offer your comments and analysis. The more we learn from you, the stronger our responses to the LBB and the more thorough the final fiscal notes will be.
To provide fiscal impact information, please contact Tim Brown at timb@county.org or call (800) 456-5974. Send information on Paul Emerson’s bills to paule@county.org or (800) 456-5974.