Legislators sit idle as special session ends today

All hope for near term school finance reform will finally be extinguished today as the second special legislative session draws to a close. Little happened on Thursday - the House met only briefly and the Senate didn't meet at all - and more of the same is expected today.

Despite the deadlock, textbooks are being shipped to school districts across the state thanks to an emergency order and most districts have started the school year without a hitch. State lawmakers, on the other hand, continue to catch heat from the public and the media for not finding a compromise during a five-month regular session and two 30-day special sessions.

House and Senate leaders are now looking to the Texas Supreme Court for guidance. Lt Gov. David Dewhurst (pictured) said he expects the governor to call another special session after the high court issues a ruling sometime in the coming months.

[Editor's Note: For details about the special session, and legislative processes, be sure to read Len Riley's "Lens on State Government" column below.]

South Texas trying to lure major military base
Hope fades due to last-minute decision by BRAC

Texas is putting together an incentive package worth more than $350 million to help attract military assets to the southern part of the state. The Base and Realignment Commission (BRAC) recommended in July that the Naval Air Station Oceana, in Virginia, be closed. Should that happen more than 250 aircraft and 10,000 personnel could conceivably find a home at Naval Station Ingleside and Naval Air Station Kingsville, both of which are in South Texas.

State leaders recently earmarked $50 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund to a snowballing incentive package. The Texas Department of Transportation has made available $100 million for road improvements around South Texas bases, and a $200 million low-interest loan fund financed by State of Texas General Obligation bonds also is available for infrastructure and facility needs of the Navy and the local defense community.

Governor Rick Perry sent a letter to BRAC Chairman Anthony Principi (pictured) earlier this month detailing the incentive package. He also invited BRAC commissioners to visit South Texas to view the unfettered air and land space that could accommodate additional military facilities. BRAC commissioners said they will review the incentive package when they begin final deliberations during the week of August 22, but Texas learned of a major setback Thursday that fades some of the hope. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison from Texas was not granted a slot at a BRAC hearing scheduled for Saturday, but proponents touting Florida's Cecil Field as a location for the jet base were invited.

Van de Putte elected president of national legislative group

Senator Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio is being named President-Elect of the prestigious National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) today at its annual conference in Seattle. Van de Putte, the first Hispanic and the first Texan ever named President-Elect of the organization, will assume the presidency next year. NCSL, an effective and respected advocate for the interests of state governments before Congress and federal agencies, provides research, technical assistance and opportunities for policymakers to exchange ideas on the most pressing state issues.

State legislators passed eminent domain bill

A measure to restrict government's power of eminent domain has been passed by state lawmakers. SB 7, authored by Sen. Kyle Janek (pictured) of Houston, bars government from seizing land strictly for commercial purposes. The U.S. Supreme Court in June ruled that a Connecticut town could lawfully seize homes so a developer could build a biomedical research facility, but left the door open for states to set their own rules. Governor Perry, who added the eminent domain issue to the special session's agenda, is expected to either sign the legislation or allow it to become law without his signature.

Houston suburb wants to build free WiFi system

City leaders in Shenandoah, just north of Houston, said they have the desire and the money to offer residents free wireless Internet connections. The project, which would involve a partnership between Shenandoah and a yet-to-be-named Internet service provider, is expected to cost about $200,000. If the proposal remains a part of the city's fiscal year 2006 budget planning and implementation could start as early as October 1.

Shapiro re-appointed to multi-state education board

Governor Rick Perry has re-appointed Sen. Florence Shapiro of Plano to the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). Her term expires in 2009. SREB, the nation's first interstate compact for education, was created in 1948 by Southern states to help government and education leaders work cooperatively on education issues. Sixteen Southwestern states currently have representatives on the board, which spends much of its time collecting and analyzing comparable data, and conducting broad studies and initiating discussions that help states and institutions form long-range plans, actions and policy proposals.

Central Texas groups band together to tap into Emerging Tech Fund

Representatives of International Sematech, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, the University of Texas, the Austin Technology Council, Texas State University-San Marcos and Temple Economic Development Corp. are banding together to add Central Texas to the list of Regional Centers of Innovation and Commercialization. Such centers, known as RCICs, will have the opportunity to tap into the $200 million Emerging Technology Fund recently established by the Legislature.

[Editor's Note: For more information about the ETF be sure to read Mary Scott Nabers' column in this week's edition]

Texas hospitals frustrated over frozen funds

As the second special legislative session ends today, hospital administrators throughout Texas are expressing frustration over the fact that about $77 million earmarked for trauma care is frozen in the state treasury.

The money, collected through surcharges for repeat traffic offenders and drunk drivers, will remain locked in the budget under a provision added in May. Despite protests from hospitals, the trauma funding issue failed to gain traction during the first and second special sessions, where lawmakers were focused on school finance reform and only a couple of other issues.

The surcharges on traffic fines are supposed to raise about $139 million dedicated to trauma care in the next two years, but state lawmakers only appropriated $62 million for that purpose.

Central Texas COG snags grant for economic development plan

The U.S. Dept. of Commerce's Economic Development Administration has awarded $73,903 to the Central Texas Council of Governments. The announcement establishes the council as an Economic Development District and will help it implement an economic development strategy. The EDA provides financial assistance to facilitate the economic development of economically distressed communities.

Houston housing authority to build more units for disabled

The Housing Authority of the City of Houston has signed a four-year Voluntary Compliance Agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to increase the number of housing units accessible for persons with disabilities. HACH will immediately begin implementation of the agreement, which applies to all of the agency's federally funded projects, related facilities, programs and activities. HUD has recently executed similar agreements with other large public housing authorities across the country.

Lens on State Government: Why Biennia?
By Len Riley, Strategic Partnerships

The talented folks at the Senate Research Center recently published their Highlights of the 79th Texas Legislature Regular Session. Organized by subject area, this excellent 300 page summary is available online.

The House Research Organization and the Texas Legislative Council will also be putting out summaries, but they both plan to include the summer special sessions. Their reports will be called Highlights of the 79th Legislature and Summary of Enactments respectively and will likely appear in the Fall. Judging from past years, they will also be excellent.

Today is the last day of the 2nd Special Session. The House is scheduled reconvene at 10:00 a.m. and the Senate at 11:00. By the time you read this they will probably have adjourned sine die. Seventy house bills and 38 senate bills were introduced; 3 bills (HB 11, SB 5, and SB 7) passed both chambers. No word yet on what actions the governor will take on those three bills.

The next article in this series will be on September 1st. That will be the first day of the new biennium (state lingo that will be explained below) and the article will focus on major events that follow the state's biennial schedule. The balance of this article sets the stage for that by describing why Texas operates on a biennial schedule.

The Texas Constitution was ratified in 1876. It is our sixth constitution and has been amended 342 times. Nine more proposed amendments will be on the ballot this November 8th.

The constitution states in Article 3, Section 5 that the legislature will meet in regular sessions biennially. As a consequence, the bulk of laws are enacted only every other year and virtually all appropriations are also approved biennially. Further, most of the constitutional requirements described in the January 7th Lens on the Legislature article, e.g., the Comptroller's revenue estimate or most of the spending limits, are based on biennial financial numbers. Many key agency actions like development of agency strategic plans and legislative appropriation requests are related to appropriations and budgeting and are therefore also done biennially Another key action for many agencies - rulemaking - tends to peak after the biennial regular legislative sessions when most new laws are enacted.

The result of the above is that state government operates with a biennial mindset. State people speak of a biennium (meaning the period from September 1st of an odd numbered year to August 31st of the next odd numbered year), sessions (meaning regular sessions) as kind of the every-two-year mile markers, and the interim as the time between sessions. "Interim charges," for example, would be directives given by the Lieutenant Governor and Speaker to their respective bodies between regular sessions.

A pictorial of the biennial cycle is available online.

Six other states meet only biennially in regular sessions, but nineteen other states adopt budgets biennially - some by adopting two one-year budgets each biennium and others by adopting two-year budgets each biennium. Texas adopts a two-year budget, although the bill patterns for agencies tells them how much they can spend in each fiscal year (the usual case) or whether unexpended balances from the first year can be carried over to the second (the exceptional situation that is usually for very large projects).

Our fiscal year is established by Section 316.071 of the Government Code. We are the only state whose fiscal year begins September 1st. Forty-six states have fiscal years that begin on July 1st. The federal fiscal year begins October 1st. Besides the fiscal year offset, the federal government is often late in making its appropriations. With about 35 percent of the state's funding coming from the federal government, accurately forecasting federal funds can be very important.

The next article will talk about key events that will occur during the biennium, and that will form the schedule for many of the future articles in this series. By coincidence, September 1st is also a key day for another reason. Apart from being the first day of the new biennium, it is approximately 90 days from the end of the regular session. As was explained in the April 8th column of the Lens on the Legislature series, most of the recently passed new laws will be effective that day. They will also be covered in the September 1st issue of the Texas Government Insider.

[Editor's Note: Previous articles by Len Riley are available online.]

Interested in tapping into the $200 Million Emerging Technology Fund?

By Mary Scott Nabers, CEO of Strategic Partnerships, Inc.

The $200 million economic engine known as the Emerging Technology Fund, or ETF, is open for business and companies of all types are already in the queue. Now is the time to capitalize on this unique state-sponsored endeavor.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

[Editors note: Mary Scott Nabers' government contracting columns run regularly in the Austin Business Journal, San Antonio Business Journal and soon the Houston Business Journal]

States' budgets faring well

An improved economy and government belt-tightening have put state governments across the country back in the black, according to a survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Collectively, the states have reserves of 7 percent - almost twice what they projected and well above the 5 percent cushion recommended by Wall Street. With a bit of padding in their proverbial pocket, state leaders across the U.S. are now discussing three options: expanding spending, providing tax relief and building up reserves further.

Government textbook now online

This fall, the University of Texas will offer to students and the public a free online textbook used in a state-mandated government class. The book, "Texas Politics," provides fundamental information about U.S. and Texas politics.

Feds: 900 Texas schools fail to make the grade

At least 900 public schools in Texas are below the benchmarks set by President Bush's No Child Left Behind education initiative, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The federal ratings are based on scores from the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS.

Strategic Partnerships, Inc. is looking for affiliates who are interested in providing engagement-specific services to the firm in the following areas:

Grant writing, proposal writing, Web/graphics design and production, media relations and planning, photography, event planning and coordination, local government assistance statewide, and sector expertise for customized sector-specific research reports. Send qualifications and contact information to Mariann Morelock at mmorelock@spartnerships.com.

Recent Austin Business Journal articles by Mary Scott Nabers

State advertising contracts have some firms going commercial - 8/5/2005

Efforts under way to gain a portion of state's $200M emerging tech fund - 7/22/2005

Government bond packages present a 'grab bag' of contract opportunities - 7/8/2005

Event Links

4th Annual San Antonio Transportation Leadership Forum - 9/7/05 - 9/8/05

Texas Assoc. of School Boards' Balancing Education and Juvenile Justice Conference - 9/8/05-9/9/05

Conference on Intellectual Property in the Global Marketplace - 9/12/05-9/13/05

Texas Municipal League Technology Summit - 9/15/05-9/16/05

2005 National Summit on Your City’s Families - 9/25/05-9/28/05

International City/County Management Association's 91st Annual Conference - 9/25/05-9/28/05

NCTCOG/ULI Development Excellence Education Day - 9/29/05

Homeland Security Conference: Mexico/Texas Border - 10/6/05

West Texas Regional Gang Investigators' Course - 10/18/05-10/20/05

Texas Municipal League Annual Conference - 10/26/05-10/28/05

OAG's 2005 Open Government Conference - 12/12/05-12/14/05

Texas Government Insider Archives

Last Issue - 8/12/05

Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3 Archives - 11/7/03 - 8/12/05

Resources

Helpful Legislative Links

State Budget Resources

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

Strategic Partnerships, Inc. (SPI) is a research and consulting firm offering business development and public affairs services. Founded in Texas in 1994 by former government executives and public sector experts, SPI has developed a national reputation as the premier marketing partner dedicated to helping companies secure contracts in the $1.5 trillion state and local government marketplace. To learn more about SPI services click here or contact our sales department at 512-531-3900.

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TARC conference on regionalism

The Texas Conference on Regionalism, sponsored by the Texas Association of Regional Councils, will be hosted in Dallas by the North Central Texas Council of Governments September 13-16. Click here for more information.

2005 Summit on Your City's Families

Texas local elected officials and other community leaders in Texas working to improve the lives of children, youth and families have the opportunity to participate in the National League of Cities' 2005 National Summit on Your City’s Families. This National Summit will be held September 25 - 28, 2005, at the Westin Riverwalk Hotel in San Antonio. For more information click here.

Education and Juvenile Justice Conference

The Texas Association of School Boards and the Texas Juvenile Probation will host this conference in Austin September 8-9. The conference mission is to promote cooperation and communication between schools and the juvenile justice system and to provide training to professionals working with students in disciplinary alternative education programs (DAEP) or juvenile justice alternative education programs (JJAEP). For more information click here.