The Legislative Budget Board and Office of the Governor held a hearing on October 29, 2020 to discuss Article VII agency Legislative Appropriations Requests (LARs), including the Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA), the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the Lottery Commission, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), and the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). This report focuses on the responses of the DMV and TxDOT. A full agenda can be found here, and a recording of the hearing can be found here.
The HillCo report below is a summary of remarks intended to give you an overview and highlight of the discussions on the various topics discussed. This report is not a verbatim transcript; it is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.
DMV Testimony
Linda Flores, Chief Financial Officer for the DMV
- Methods of Financing: with the exception of the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority, all DMV programs are financed through the DMV fund. MVCPA is funded through General Revenue.
- DMV is requesting 7 exceptional items (EIR) totaling $19.5 million, 5 of which are funded through the DMV fund, and the remaining 2 MVCPA items will be funded through General Revenue.
- The first EIR provides funding for construction of new DMV headquarters. Multi-phase approach across biennium.
- The second EIR is for the deployment of methods for collecting revenue
- The third EIR is for a complain management system
- The fourth and fifth EIRs are for the construction of new substations
- The final two EIRs relate to MVCPA and provide new funding as well as 3 new FTEs
TxDOT Testimony
Stephen Stewart, Director of Financial Management for TxDOT
- TxDOT was able to accelerate some projects due to reduced traffic in the early months of the pandemic
- LAR revenue estimate and budget total are based on TxDOT cash forecasts. Estimate a budget of $30.75 billion
- 86% of TxDOT funding supports highway projects
- Minor changes to riders
- Exceptional item requests include requests by stakeholders that TxDOT cannot directly fund
- 208 new FTEs funded by TxDOT baseline are also being requested
- References slide deck provided to committee with greater detail than remarks