By Laura Nicholes
TAC Legislative Staff
On Friday, April 29, the Texas House voted to abolish the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission (TJPC) and combine the two into one agency.
The House voted 146 to 2 to pass SB 653, which combines the responsibilities for supervising, treating and incarcerating juvenile offenders under the newly formed Texas Juvenile Justice Department.
For a variety of reasons, the initial effort to merge the agencies did not pass in the 2009 Legislative Session. Counties were concerned about the 2009 merger, citing the need for two separate agencies with two separate budgets serving separate juvenile populations with separate needs.
Those concerns are still present, especially the one about separate budgets. While all stakeholders agree that community-based diversion programs need to be fully funded in order to achieve the intended goal of diverting youth from the institutional division, it is still unclear in the state budget how much of the anticipated savings will be reallocated to serve that purpose.
By law, counties must provide a certain level of funding to juvenile probation departments and now must provide increased local services with a decreased amount of assistance from the state, a result of the drastic budget cuts underway. Currently, counties provide a statewide average of 75 percent of funding for the juvenile probation departments.
To put the situation in perspective, not only will juvenile probation departments need additional money for the diversion programs, but with the expectation of even fewer commitments to TYC, counties will experience increased probation case loads and a higher number of higher-risk and needs offenders requiring higher level, more expensive treatment.
Rural counties can expect an increased need for mental health and other professionals to deliver community-based treatment services; not to mention, counties will still be responsible for the operation of local detention facilities, and Juvenile Justice Alternative Education programs will still need to be funded. County juvenile probation officers will now have an increased responsibility for supervising offenders on juvenile parole — those youth released back into the community from the institutional division.
Secure facilities for housing the most dangerous juvenile offenders will still be available when needed and will still need adequate funding by the new department to operate and provide the required intensive treatment and educational services mandated by law. These items are funded by the state.
By Aurora Flores
TAC Legislative Staff
The Texas Senate passed SB 9, which amends current state law to provide for increased border security. Some Texas legislators have argued that the federal government has not done enough to protect Texas’ border, resulting in an overhaul bill being filed at the state level.
This omnibus homeland security bill, authored by Sen. Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands) and passed on Thursday, April 28, includes many significant changes. Those include requiring all law enforcement agencies to adopt Secure Communities, a program where local law enforcement compares fingerprints of those arrested to a Department of Homeland Security database to determine if the individual can be deported. It also increases penalties for a list of felonies.
The legislation codifies proof-of-citizenship requirements for driver’s licenses and state-issued IDs. The amended law would establish an automatic license-plate reader pilot program for vehicles used by DPS officers, and will allow DPS to commission special unit of Texas Rangers to, among other things, conduct background checks, monitor sex offenders and assist during disasters.
SB 9 will now make its way to the House where it will be referred to committee. TAC staff will continue to monitor this and other significant legislation.
For more information, contact Aurora Flores at aurorafo@county.org or (800) 456-5974.
On Thursday, April 21, the Senate Finance Committee voted in favor of SB 1. Out of 15 committee members, only four voted against the bill. The state budget, now known as the committee substitute (CSSB 1), will most likely reach the Senate floor next Wednesday, which is the earliest the Senate can debate the bill.
CSSB 1 totals $176.5 billion for all funds, which is $12 billion more than the House version. More information on CSSB 1 will be provided at a later date. The information below represents recommendations the Senate Finance members adopted during the past three weeks.
Most of the funding restored large cuts in health and human services and education.
Recommendations Adopted in SB 1
Senate Finance restored other priority cuts that are significant to counties. These proposed recommendations include:
These are only a few of the recommendations that were adopted by the Senate Finance Committee during its deliberation. The bill's next step will be the Senate floor. Floor amendments typically are not offered on the Senate version of the state budget.
No New Taxes
With no new taxes being offered, the obvious question now becomes: where will the money come from? A group of key senators are looking at non-tax revenue and the possibility of using additional money from the Rainy Day Fund. Another suggestion that recently surfaced was to use an extra $2 billion from the state’s public school trust fund, which would be used directly on education.
For more information on this article, contact Paul Emerson, TAC state financial analyst, at (800) 456-5974 or Paule@county.org.
HB 442 by Rep. Ryan Guillen, (D-Rio Grande City), which establishes an emergency radio infrastructure account, will be heard on the House floor on Tuesday, May 3.
Past emergency and evacuation events have brought together many different emergency personnel from all over Texas, but the technology and instruments used for communication among emergency response agencies and their respective personnel have not been compatible. As a result, many officers and responders remain isolated without the technology needed to communicate with other responders.
The legislation, if passed, would help address this problem by allowing funding from the fugitive apprehension account to be used for the planning, development, provision, enhancement and ongoing maintenance of the interoperable statewide emergency radio infrastructure.
For more information, contact Aurora Flores at aurorafo@county.org or (800) 456-5974.
By Paul Emerson
TAC State Financial Analyst
With a little more than a month remaining in the legislative session, SB 1 is still making its way through the legislative process. SB 1 is now on the Senate Intent Calendar and could be heard as soon as Monday, May 1.
If SB 1 passes the Senate as anticipated, the bill will next head to a conference committee where five members from both the House and the Senate will be assigned to work out a compromise between the two versions of the state budget.
State Budget: Senate Versus House
As of Friday, April 29, the Senate version of the state budget stands at $176.5 billion, slightly less than 6 percent of the current budget (2011-12) which ends Aug. 31, 2011. Unlike the House, the Senate’s budget uses $3.1 billion of the Rainy Day Fund. The Senate version is almost $12 billion higher than the House budget, which only stands at $164.5 billion. But even with this increase, the Senate version will still fall about $7.8 billion short in the areas of health and human services compared to current biennium spending. According to Senate Finance Chairman Sen. Steve Ogden (R-Bryan), the Senate budget still leaves Medicaid spending about $3 billion short of what current law requires.
The following are a few of the big ticket items that were increased in the current version of SB 1 compared to the Senate's introduced version of the budget:
In addition, the TAC County Information Projects has identified cuts in at least 40 agencies’ programs that could have a direct impact on counties. This list compares the current budget (2010-11) with each chamber’s proposed state budget. The last two columns on the far right in the table show the percent change between the current budget and both proposed state budgets.
For more information on this article, contact Paul Emerson, TAC state financial analyst, at (800) 456-5974 or paule@county.org.