Rodriguez Appointed Adjutant General

Gov. Rick Perry has appointed Brig. Gen. Charles G. Rodriguez as the Adjutant General of Texas for a term to expire Feb. 1, 2007. The adjutant general is commander of the state and National Guard forces in Texas. Rodriguez will replace Lt. Gen. Wayne D. Marty, who is retiring. His appointment is subject to Texas Senate confirmation.

Rodriguez currently serves as assistant vice president for university relations and deputy director of the Center for Public Health Preparedness and Biomedical Research at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. He also serves as the Texas Assistant Adjutant General for Homeland Defense in the Texas Joint Force Headquarters.

Gallagher Named to ERCOT Board

Carolyn Gallagher has been named the new independent member of the board of directors of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Gallagher is a member of the board of governors of the U.S. Postal Service. She previously served as president and CEO of Texwood Furniture Corp. in Taylor. She is currently an investor and advisor to several businesses. Gallagher sits on the board of the Employees Retirement System of Texas and is a member and past chairwoman of the St. Edward's University Board of Trustees. She is president of the Headliner's Club of Austin.

TDCJ Names New General Counsel

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has named Melinda Bozarth as its new General Counsel. Bozarth currently serves as Deputy Director of TDCJ's Rehabilitation and Reentry Programs Division. She will assume her new duties on Monday. She replaces Carl Reynolds, who resigned earlier this month to accept a position at the Office of Court Administration. Bozarth began her legal career in June 1983 at the Staff Counsel of Offenders, which was then part of the Texas Department of Corrections. She moved on to work at the Texas Attorney General's Office before joining TDCJ in 1992.

Permanent CEO of Harris County Hospital District Named

David S. Lopez has been named permanent President and CEO of the Harris County Hospital District (HCHD). The HCHD has been without a permanent leader for more than a year. Lopez assumed the position of Interim President and CEO in March 2004 after the departure of John A. Guest. He was Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the time. Lopez has indicated that under his leadership there will be some major changes made including some reorganization of departments, streamlining of processes and the naming of a COO.

Texas Supreme Court Sets Date For School Finance Arguments

The Texas Supreme Court announced today that it won't hear arguments in a court challenge of the state's school funding system until after the Legislature adjourns. Lawmakers are considering changes in the way Texas funds its public schools during the legislative session that ends May 30. Any plan to change the $30 billion system must be approved by the courts. But the high court's opinion on the lawsuit challenging the system won't be known until well after opening statements begin in the case July 6. More than 300 school districts brought the lawsuit. State District Judge John Dietz last year ruled that the school finance system is unconstitutional. Attorneys for the state appealed Dietz's ruling directly to the Texas Supreme Court.

Texas to Gain 12 Million Residents by 2030

Texas is expected to gain more than 12 million people by 2030 and will continue to rank as the second most-populous state in the U.S., according to recently released projections from the U.S. Census Bureau. The state's population is expected to increase by almost 60 percent between 2000 and 2030.

GLO Earned $484 Million in '04

The Texas General Land Office (GLO) earned a record $484 million in FY04. The operating budget for the state agency which manages state lands and the Texas coast, cleans up coastal oil spills, oversees state veteran benefits and manages extensive historic archives was $42 million. The bulk of the GLO's earnings, more than $302 million, was earned from oil and gas production on the 20 million mineral acres the Land Office oversees. Grazing rights and other surface rentals of state land brought in another $2.5 million. "The Land Office is the only state agency that earns more than it costs," said GLO Commissioner Jerry Patterson recently.

TBPC VAC Member Named Texas Small Business Person of the Year

Rebecca Boenigk, a member of the Texas Building & Procurement Commission's Vendor Advisory Committee, has been named the Texas Small Business Person of the Year by the United State Small Business Administration. Boenigk is the chief executive officer of Neutral Posture Inc. of Bryan. The company, a manufacturer of ergonomic office seating products and accessories, is the largest certified female-owned seating manufacturer in the world.

Laredo School District Joins Suit Over No Child Left Behind Act

The Laredo Independent School District has joined the nation's largest teachers union and school districts in two other states in filing a lawsuit over No Child Left Behind Act this week. The lawsuit aims to free schools from complying with any part of the education law not paid for by the federal government.

Houston TranStar Wins National Award

Houston TranStar, the Transportation and Emergency Management Center for the Greater Houston Region, was named the winner in the category of ‘State and Local Government Innovator’ for its ‘Real-Time Situation Status Website’ during the 6th Annual Digital Government Awards at FOSE 2005, the largest government trade show in the world. The awards ceremony recognize the best examples of how governments are using technology to transform the delivery of citizen services and showcases high performers in government innovation.

Lens on the Legislature: Structure of the Appropriations Bill

Last week's article focused on the appropriations process and included a description of the conference committee appointed to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions of SB1. On Tuesday of this week, the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) published a summary of those differences.

This week's focus is on the structure of the bill, so the interested reader won't have to wade through its 900+ pages to find the areas of interest. The links given below for Articles I through VIII take the reader to the respective Tables of Contents in the LBB's Legislative Budgetary Estimates (published in January) because those tables show the agencies that are included within each Article. With an understanding of that structure, the reader can then easily find the sections of interest in the various versions of the bill as it goes through its legislative journey.

The appropriations bill is divided into 13 articles. All state agencies and universities, except those in the legislative branch, fall into one of the first 8 articles as follows:

• Article I: General Government
• Article II: Health and Human Services
• Article III: Education
• Article IV: The Judiciary
• Article V: Public Safety and Criminal Justice
• Article VI: Natural Resources
• Article VII: Business and Economic Development
• Article VIII: Regulatory

Article IX contains general provisions as follows:

• Part 1 is a brief statement of legislative intent.
• Parts 2, 3, and 4 deal with salaries (except for agency heads) and employment policies.
• Part 5 covers travel regulations.
• Part 6 includes general limitations on expenditures, such as last quarter spending, transferring funds between appropriation items, limitations on grants to units of local government, state employment caps, and capital budget requirements.
• Part 7 describes reporting requirements such as annual reports and inventories, required notifications to members of the legislature, and reporting of major contracts.
• Part 8 on Other Appropriation Authority covers matters like acceptance of gifts or federal block grants as well as the sale of surplus property and handling the money from vending machines.
• Parts 9 through12 have specific provisions related respectively to information resources, health, real property and other property (e.g., aircraft, vehicles, interoperability of purchased radios).
• Part 13 collects all of the other provisions that didn't fit into one of the earlier parts.

Article X appropriates funds to the legislature for its own operations, including the operations of legislative agencies. This article tends to be less specific than the others. For instance, no performance measure targets are included for legislative agencies.

Article XI is called "Items for Future Consideration" and is a holding place for certain contingencies. For instance, as the appropriations bill goes through the process, this article will normally contain a list of provisions that say "If this specific bill passes, then a certain amount of money is appropriated to a specific agency." These matters are usually resolved prior to passage of the General Appropriations Act, so often there is no Article IX in the final GAA.

Articles XII and XIII are called the "Savings Clause" and "Emergency Clause" respectively and deal with procedural matters related to the bills effectiveness and severability.

Because the electronic versions of the appropriation bills are about 5MB in size, the LBB has broken them up by articles to make downloading easier. By taking a moment to understand the structure of appropriation bills, the reader will be able to go directly to area of interest without having to download other portions.

A future column in the Lens on the Legislature series will focus on the structure of the appropriations for specific agencies.

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Event Links

Texas Public Health Association's 80th Annual Education Conference - 04/24/05 - 04/26/05

15th Annual Texas GIS Forum - 4/25/05 - 4/29/05

Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Summer Workshop - 6/8/05 - 6/10/05

Texas State Agency Business Administrators' Association 36th Annual Summer Conference - 6/12/05 - 6/15/05

TASB Summer Leadership Institute - 06/23/05 - 06/24/05

Government Finance Officers Association 99th Annual Conference - 6/26/05 - 6/29/05

8th Annual Texas Transportation Summit - 8/9/05 - 8/12/05

Texas Association of Counties 2005 Post Legislative Session Conference - 8/10/05 - 8/12/05

Past ABJ articles by Mary Scott Nabers

Population growth leaves local, state governments dealing with water issues - 4/8/2005

State, local agencies seeking companies with GIS offerings - 3/25/2005

Transportation, teacher retirement system among Texas' biggest spenders - 3/11/2005

Tiny radio tags could create plenty of big contract chances - 2/25/2005

Texas Government Insider Archives

Last Issue - 4/15/05

Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3 Archives - 11/7/03 - 4/8/05

Resources

Helpful Legislative Links

State Budget Resources

Government Information Sharing: Calls to Action - PERSPECTIVES

Budget and Performance Assessments: State Agencies and Institutions, Fiscal Year 2004

Legislative Budget Board's Contracts Reported by Texas State Agencies and Institutions of Higher Education in 2004

Legislative Workforce Summaries

Diagram of Legislative Process

HUB Forms Library

State Contract Management Guide

State Procurement Manual

Who Represents Me? Texas Districts By Address

Diagram of Texas' Biennial Budget Cycle

Texas Fact Book 2004

Public Hearings/Meetings

Upcoming Senate Committee Meetings

Upcoming House Committee Meetings

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2005 Trilateral Technology Summit

The City of San Antonio will host the 2005 Trilateral Technology Summit, an International Trade & Technology Summit, May 2 - 3 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 111 E. Pecan St. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will give a keynote address. For more information or to register, visit www.trilateraltechsummit.com.

Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association Summer Conference

The Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association Summer Conference will take place June 8 - 10 in Austin. Topics to be discussed include: Tools for the Instructional Leader: Managing Data and Leading People and Effective Documentation and Conferencing Skills: What it Takes to Be Successful. For more information, click here.

4th Annual San Antonio Transportation Leadership Forum

The San Antonio Mobility Coalition will host the 4th Annual San Antonio Transportation Leadership Forum September 7 - 8 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio. This year's forum will focus on Regional Solutions for Central and South Texas. Program topics include: the Future of Transit, Linking Infrastructure Systems, San Antonio Transportation Issues and the Economic Impact of Transportation. For more information, visit www.samobilitycoalition.org.