The Senate Committee on Finance met on January 30 to hear from the LBB and agency staff regarding budget proposals for the General Land Board, Texas Water Development Board, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Railroad Commission, and Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission.
This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight of the discussions on the various topics the committee took up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the hearing but 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.
General Land Office & Veterans Land Board
Pam Bolton, LBB
- GR reduction of $41.3M
- End of funds from Harvey recovery and completed projects
- Recommend $2.5B increase in fed funds for disaster recovery
- Request $15.9M for maintenance and operation of the Alamo, est. date of completion of Alamo master plan 2024
- New rider for funding for coastal construction projects
- Sunset rec for school land board says all projects can be completed within existing resources
- Perry – Explain rider 19
- Bolton – They have 2 large coastal construction areas which are 97% of the capital budget, so we have created a separate rider for those two projects
- Perry – Do you have anyone tracking all funds for Harvey recovery?
- McGeady, LBB – Yes we can get you a number showing all funds, GR, federal funds, etc.
George Bush, Commissioner, GLO
- Budget is SB 1 is $4.8B, 95% is fed funding
- GLO requesting new rider to move new balances from ISPF
- Rider to carry forward earned federal funds to ensure readiness for newt natural disaster
- 5 exceptional items
- $4M in GR for ?
- Contingency funds $4.2M for new FEMA mission, assuming FEMA agreement expires this year
- Harvey coastal damages funding need, $23.6M, goal would be to reimburse the state after getting reimbursement from FEMA after project completion
- $885,000 to improve GLO reporting system, can source funds through PSF
- Many databases antiquated, request $480K from PSF to update databases
- Nelson – GLO is supposed to receive $4B for feds for Harvey, can you tell about that?
- Bush – We have not received rulemaking in relation to litigation, which would be $2.4B
- Nelson – There is $4 or $5B from Army Corps of Engineers, can you tell about that
- Bush – Feb 19 Cong appropriated $4.9B to ACoE for Harvey related projects, we are waiting for rules on the use of that money
- Nelson – Are we certain you will not have a supplemental need?
- Bush – If we can get the 3rd except item of $23.6M we probably won’t need
- Perry – What is the status on the $4M for Sabine Pass?
- Bush – OF the money appropriated to ACoE $4M in for Sabine Pass, I am working with Sen. Taylor for a state match
- Perry – There is a state match, but it is a long term, 30 year project correct?
- B – Yes
- Perry – You received a block grant of (amount??) for recovery in Houston, did that go through to city or did it go around?
- Bush – The compromise was that we would have oversight but they created their own action plan
- P – So there is 17.2m for housing, what is the status on that
- B – When HUD wrote the rules we had a draft action plan, 1B of 2.7B will be to HAP (Housing Assistance Program)
- Perry – How many housing projects have you gotten to rebuild?
- Mark Havens, GLO – There is an environmental process that takes longer than the actual construction. The first construction projects took about 2 or 3 weeks. There are about 2-3 thousand in the environmental approval process
- Hinojosa – For special exception 2, what type of flexibility do you need ?
- Bush – Once the agreement with FEMA expires in February, another hurricane season will be about to start, we need systems for conducting triage, connecting constituents to resources that they need
- Hinojosa – Where are we on the waiting list of new homes for veterans?
- Bush – There is only so much we can do with the funding we have, we have looked at underserved veteran communities and decided to focus on Brazoria county and Houston, we have a site in Houston that will be open soon, we are looking at another site in Tarrant county
- Hinojosa – what is the match between state and fed for nursing homes for vets?
- Havens – I believe its 65-35 (which way?)
- Taylor – Do we need money in this cycle to help local communities like Orange County who cannot make their local share (35%) of the coastal barrier project?
- Bush – We need it and we need it now. ACoE has communicated that if do not get phase 1 of the coastal barrier project done the rest of the project will not be completed.
- Taylor – So we can pay for that over a period of 30 years?
- Bush – They are open to creativity in how we pay for that over the 30 years, it could be a balloon payment or a set aside infrastructure fund, etc.
- Nelson and Taylor – Agree that this is a problem and needs to be addressed this session
- Nichols – I know that OC cannot afford their share of the project, there are only 85K people in that county. Harvey funds are paying for people with certain institutional knowledge, can you keep those people without federal Harvey funding?
- Bush – If we do not get an extension with FEMA agreement we will enter another hurricane season without the full time staff we need. We will find it in the budget to keep most of these people, but it would be nice to have the security to keep those people.
- Nichols – Asks about Alamo trust structure
- Bush – Describes structure
- Kolkhorst – Of the $4B in HUD, is any of the block grant set aside for the barker cypress issue?
- Bush – The HUD money will not be devoted to that problem because that problem is clearly in the functions of ACOE.
- Kolkhorst – Is there any money for the reservoirs?
- Havens – There has been some funding set aside for the 3rd reservoir from the ACoE money for studies to look at the reservoir issues
- Kolkhorst horst – Slow flow, how long will there be until the rules are drafted?
- Bush – HUD and OMB blame each other for hold up in mitigation rules, I recently wrote a letter to the President to outline the problem in the delay on the mitigation rules
- Kolkhorst – So we are waiting for rules, but the housing programs have already started?
- Bush – Correct, we are in full execution mode in terms of the housing mission
- Nelson – So what is going on at the federal level that this is taking so long?
- Bush – There is a lot of finger pointing, HUD says they have never drafted rules before so it is taking a while.
- Huffman – So the $17B that includes the coastal barrier spine, could we start using that once we get the rules
- Bush – correct
- Huffman – Would it be helpful if we passed something so there is something in place once the money gets there?
- Bush – We can pledge to visit with Harris County staff and discuss the funds from their bond package.
- Huffman – Of the $3.1B hazard mitigation program share request, local cost share is $273M, are you involved in looking at those grants or is that done with TDEM?
- Havens – Can we use $4B od CDBG mitigation, we are hoping to set aside enough for local communities, so they have enough for the HMPG
- Huffman –
- Nelson – How much money are we talking about, I heard $5B earlier, now I’m hearing $17B? I’d like to have my arms around how much we are talking about
- Huffman – Local match for this program is $270M
- Huffman – Do you think it would be helpful to have an entity to review these projects and somehow rate these requests to tell the legislature which ones have top priority?
- Bush – We can work with universities to do something similar to this, I think an agency like that would be helpful to help understand how to manage the recovery dollars
- Flores – Is the cenotaph owned by the city or the state
- Bush – Owned by the city, the state
- Flores – So the decision to move the cenotaph is that an SA decision or the state?
- Bush – The city decided to move that
- West – What is the system for monitoring use of recovery funds?
- Bush – We brought in a “blue chip” outside auditor to make sure those funds are used properly, we have 3rd party admins who constantly monitor our books. W
- West – So there have been no issues with the administration of the funds?
- Bush – Not thus far
- West – And you are monitoring with 3rd party admins?
- Bush – We have an internal auditing process, then we bring in outside auditors on a random basis
- West – I haven’t fully appreciated all the streams of money, I assume you have a better grasp on what particular activities are being funded?
- Heather Lagrone, GLO – Yes HUD requires us to report the details of all our programs quarterly. We have also have an internal tracking system designed to administer CBDG program and is tailored to the programs GLO is implementing.
- West – Are those CDBG funds going to public entities or are you contracting with vendors?
- Lagrone – We are doing some of both. We are working with local governments, individual homeowners, businesses and developers for depending on the program.
- West – And those developers are being funded through CDBG?
- Lagrone – Yes, we have a $250m affordable rental program, with action plan amendment 2 we are going to add another $200m. This program is oversubscribed 4 to 1, we have $1.3b in applications for that program that we think will have $450m from CDBG-DR funds
- West – Is that also using tax credits?
- Lagrone – Currently we don’t have any that are tax credit funded.
- West – Competitive contracts are subject to HUD program?
- Bush – Yes, we have instituted that program
- West – I am going to want to visit you about those.
- West – There is an increase of $1.6M for outside attorneys’ fees that is part of the $37m PSF increase, what is that about?
- Havens – We have a defense prosecution rider, we are responsible for 13m mineral acres, we will use outside counsel for disputes over those. Depending on subject matter we will use either AG or outside counsel.
- West – During 16-17 biennium GLO transferred $375m to the corpus of the PSF, it appears in 20-21 there will be a significant reduction in that transfer down to $55m, why is that?
- Bush – Before the session the GLO board released $600m directly to the available school fund for use by the legislature for education funding. Since that time $55m has been released to the State Board of Education. During the interim the board has the flexibility to release additional capital
- West –Why $55m in 2021 for the AUF compared to the current FY where $490m was transferred?
- Bush – I can’t speak to the rest of the board, but for my decision I made a policy decision that we would be helpful to the lege, anticipating a need to fund education. I made a policy decision to release the majority of the funds to the AUF instead of the SBOE.
- West – What was the rationale of that decision
- Bush – Rationale was to help fund public education
- West – I could go further into that but I’m not going to.
- West – It seems you are hovering around 7% for your health program and are not reaching any of your goals?
- Bush – We can do better, and we have improved during my time. Describes some of the things that have been done to improve, highlights commodities as an area of struggle. Need to elevate more local and county level hubs rather than state level.
- West – In terms of veterans homes, has there been any move to look at Dallas county
- Bush – We gave Tarrant county the first look, we are now reaching out to adjacent counties, but it always comes down to dollars and cents. North Texas will be a recipient
- West – So you reached out to Dallas county but have not received a response?
- Bush – No some of these places are reticent because it is a big project, but it comes down to how we can get land
- Bettencourt – Orange County cannot possibly pay their local share for the barrier project, so the state will have to step in. We need more reservoir storage capacity. “The public is looking for a hot knife to cut through this federal butter”, is that you?
- Bush –We can commit to get to the reservoir. We have been focused on the housing mission for the last year, but we can commit to the reservoir project.
- Bettencourt – None of the Harris county $2.5b bond was applied to the reservoir, can you point us to where the federal money is?
- Bush – We’ve got a lot on our plate, but we will definitely reach out and try to get those rules. The gov has designated us as the state sponsor on CBDG, we asked last night from those mitigation rules form the president himself
- Nelson – What is this $17B that I keep hearing?
- Bush – It was the Congressional appropriation from February 2018, 3rd disaster supplemental that was allocated to ACOE
- Bettencourt – And it would be a $6B match if we had to match 35%
- Watson – Are the entities dealing with the alamo complying with the public information act and open meetings act?
- Bush – The entities are complying, yes
- Campbell – When will you get an executive director of the Veterans’ Land Board?
- Bush – We decided to have the chief clerk act as executive director
- Campbell – So they are named as exec dir?
- Bush – The actual title is exec secretary
- Campbell – Who is that
- Havens – I am executive secretary
- Campbell – Many Texans do not want the cenotaph moved, I would like to see your passion on that issue matching the passion of Texans
- Perry – Flood plan SB 396, SB 397 and SJR 28 accommodates everyone on this panel, set sup a flood plan oversight, and has pathways for the state to participate or not participate. My office will meet with anyone ho would like to discuss these.
- Nelson – I think it would be advantageous to have a work group to drill down on these pots of federal money, I am more confused now than I was this morning.
Railroad Commission
Thomas Brown, LBB
- $202m in all funds for 20-12, a decrease of 21.1%
- Recommended funding level for agency maintains base level of 18-19 minus two exceptional items
Christi Craddick, Chair RRC
- Discussed employment changes since last session, employment at RRC has grown since last session
- Back on schedule for vehicle replacement
- Has made good progress in modernizing IT infrastructure
- Capital request $9.8m to continue building IT mainframe
- Hinojosa – Unplugged wells are a problem, have you made progress on this?
- Craddick – We have plugged about 1900 (?) wells, to have an active P5 or operating license you have to have a bond, so we use dollars from our operating fund to plug wells
- Stitton – Of 6900 abandoned wells, most of them were drilled before 2001 before financial assurance was required. We have 126,000 inactive wells owned by operators in good standing
- Hinojosa – Are we keeping up with the number of new pipelines?
- Craddick – We are now paying our pipeline inspector a comparable amount to feds and other agencies, we are asking for an addition 10 to our current 22 safety inspectors. It takes 2 years of training but paying them more allows us to recruit and retain. It is an ongoing need.
- Christian – Gave summary of Texas energy production growth
- Stitton – Discussed why the growing oil industry will cause certain problems with well plugging, etc. and new constructions of pipelines that will be needed. Discussed IT modernization project.
- Nichols – Are you still on FORTRAN?
- Craddick – Yes, we have 5 FTEs who maintain the system, 2 of whom are eligible for retirement
Jason Fearneyhough, Deputy Commissioner Texas Dept. Of Ag
- Lost 5 of 6 important budgetary tools, fees are forced to be set at levels that cover all potential costs of program.
- This means TDA has to plan for the worst-case scenario, and our fees reflect the worst-case scenario rather than the reality.
- Reviewed exceptional item requests
- Discussed risk of rural hospital closures
- Hinojosa – Why are hospitals under TDA and not HHS?
- Fearneyhough – Rural hospitals fall under TDA
- Hinojosa – I would like to see Sid Miller at some point come before the committee.
- Watson – What changes have there been at the Commission that would cause the Finance Committee to do something different than we have in the past
- Fearneyhough – The budgetary tools were removed 2 sessions ago
- Dan Hunter, Asst. Commissioner for Water and Rural Affairs – No historical data for cost recovery programs
- Watson – I believe the lege revealed a lack of trust (Watson said he was “trying to use political language”) in the fees that were being charged by the Commission, I would like to see the Commissioner explain why things are different
- Nichols – The first session under Miller they asked for a lot of programs we chose not to fund, but a lot of members thought that between one cycle to the next there were exorbitant increases in fees. We asked how much you were spending, and you internally said you didn’t know, yet you were raising fees for things that you didn’t know how much they cost
- Hunter – Any fees raised above program cost we lost, there was no ability for us to utilize those funds. Where we are today is 3 times better than before in terms of knowing where we are.
- Nichols – Why does your agency have an impact on hospitals?
- Hunter – A few years ago rural health administration was moved to TDA. I believe it was because we do more for rural economic development than HHS.
- Perry – If you move rural health to HHS then the rural health issues would be lost in the shuffle because HHS is so large. TDA is also unique in their fee structure, it is not “black and white” it gets complicated. I would like to know how many Texas associations have chosen to work with USDA rather than TDA because of pricing.
- Flores – Is there any mechanism by which you can adjust those fees and not go over the cost?
- Hunter – Yes we have lowered the ag fee, we have collected data and when we have more accurate data we can use more accurate fees. We would be derelict of our duties if we do not collect enough and are criticized if we collect too much, we are in a “catch-22”.
- Campbell – Something needs to be done better in setting fees.
- Watson – The legislature sent a strong message that you are not caught in a catch-22, you created the catch-22. I would like to hear what is different, and I don’t think just saying we are in a catch-22 is a good approach. This is why I would like to hear from Sid Miller.
- West – I agree I would like to hear from Miller.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
Thomas Brown, LBB
- Provide $751m in all funds, decrease of $101m or 11.9%
- Reviewed LBB recommendations
- Flores – Could you explain the moderate rating for enforcement agencies?
- Brown – The enforcement program extends beyond game warden activities
- Perry – Sporting goods tax we have historically not appropriated 100% of that, could you get the Committee info on how much that would have been over the past ten years?
- Brown – Yes that info is in the report
- McGeady – We can total that information up for you if that is what you are asking
Ralph Duggins, Chairman, TPWD
- Outlined importance of parks
- Ok with not pursuing a transfer of the Fort Leaton site
- Answer to Perry’s question to LBB – Shortfall on appropriation from the last 10 years was $600m for P&W, which has been gathered in but not appropriated
- Perry – Are the majority of your projects (fish hatchery, etc.) multiyear?
- Carter Smith, Exec Dir. P&W – Most projects are 3-5 years
- Perry – Question about park closures
- We have many parks for which we do not have the capacity to run and we often have to turn people away
- West – Question about Cedar Hill park
- Smith – We have been working on $15m in projects there, it is a high priority for us and there is a huge demand
- West – What is completion for that
- Jessica Davidson P&W infrastructure – Should be done by the end of the next biennium
- Kolkhorst horst – 8 parks recommended for transfer were not part of the Sunset review process, was that an addition by a member?
- Duggins – I believe it was from Rep. Peddie
- Kolkhorst horst – It looks like there was a big decrease in federal grants, is that because you have spent them or what?
- Smith – I think that is a “phantom decrease”, it is difficult to predict how many federal dollars we will get in any given year
- Mike Jensen, CFO P&W – What you see is an overstated decrease
- Flores – Is the $20m for state parks roads in TXDot budget enough for park road repairs?
- Smith – NO we estimate road repairs will take about $250m, but we should let TXDot handle roads since they are better at handling road repairs than we are
- Flores – What is the status of Balmorhea?
- Smith – Thanks to a gift of $2m from Apache and individual donors we were able to do emergency repairs and the pool should be back open soon
- Hancock – Can I get an update on where we are on deferred maintenance. I think it may be a good idea to roll that into facilities oversight.
- Hinojosa – Two sessions ago we authorized 19 new game wardens, is everything going well with that?
- Smith – Yes those additional game wardens were and are a huge help, especially near the border.
- Hinojosa – What is the status on the fencing project on the border?
- Smith – We support the mission of securing our borders, we have been told by Border Patrol there is more that can be done. We have not heard any updates, that might be due to the shutdown.
- Hinojosa – I think it would be a sad situation if we put a wall up, it would ruin the butterfly center.
- Nichols – I doubt the lege will approve $100m to drydock the Battleship Texas, what are other alternatives?
- Smith – There is no cheap alternative, we are looking forward to working with the work group established to work on this issue.
- Nichols – You could build up clay and soil up to the point where you could walk up to the ship. It will eventually rust out, but it could work and would be cheaper.
- Smith – We are open to suggestions as to what to do.
- Birdwell – Agrees it is important to save the ship.
- Taylor – Can you give an explanation about the deteriorating conditions on the ship? We gave $65m but is in worse condition, what is going on with that?
- Smith – The worst thing that could happen to that ship would be to list and sink. Without that funds it would have been even worse. The ships ribs have wasted away, we had to stabilize the structural integrity of the ship before doing anything else.
- Taylor – We need to get the ship out of the saltwater somehow.
- Bettencourt – Discussed difficulties of moving the ship
- Smith – Coast Guard would have a lot of reservations of moving it out of the Houston ship channel.
- Bettencourt – Losing the ship is not an option
Animal Health Commission
Thomas Brown, LBB
- 6% decrease in all funds from previous biennium
- Reviewed LBB recommendations
- Nichols – Cattle fever tick mitigation, we increased their budget last session, are we now reducing that by $1.2M?
- Brown – The reduction is related to one-time expenditures from 18-19 that will not be needed in the upcoming biennium.
- Nichols – Did they request a funding increase?
- Brown – They did request an increase in pay for their inspectors of $700k
Andy Schwartz, Executive Director, Animal Health Commission
- Asking for 3 exceptional items, no additional FTESs
- First priority is $400k in funds for a web-based animal health monitorization system to replace old systems. We requested these last year and did not receive them.
- 2nd priority $700k to increase salaries of inspectors across the board, these inspectors have a relatively high turnover rate. Looking at making some temporary positions permanent.
- Coleman Locke, Chairman, AMC – Requests a salary increase for the executive director.
- Perry – Expressed support for executive director salary increase. I’m worried about hiring temporary staff for tick mitigation, what is the strategy for this? I am worried that you are being cognizant of state dollars at the expense of doing your job.
- Schwartz –We did not ask for additional funding or FTEs because we believe we are the right size for that outbreak. We can stand the cut from the one-time expenses for trucks we had last session, but we need the rest for continuing our efforts against the ticks. We see cyclical outbreaks and don’t want to have a lot of employees to lay off during the slow times.
- Perry – Do not think that because the ticks are gone for today that they will not come back. Compares it to measles outbreaks due to reduction in vaccinations.
- Perry – What is your opinion regarding rural veterinary capacity?
- Schwartz – Aware of a shortage. There is a program to repay student loans for vets who serve in those underserved areas.
- Hinojosa – There seems to be a cycle of fever ticks through the years and it seems to be most significant along the border, do we have ties with Mexico for this problem?
- Schwartz – There are approx. 100 USDA officials who are dedicated to catching stray cattle from Mexico.
- Hinojosa – So there is a program to intercept those stray cattle?
- Schwartz – Mexico has no tick eradication program, so it would be advantageous to have a buffer zone and there have been talks about supporting a tick eradication program in Mexico.
- Nichols – We appreciate frugality, but we want to make sure you have everything you need, are you really asking for everything you need?
- Schwartz – Yes we are, especially with the exceptional item for the database. If USDA backs out completely or only controls along the border, then we will need more but that is not the situation right now.
- Nichols – Question about CWD
- Schwartz – There is a shared database we use to trace deer out of 5 facilities
- Nichols – Are there tests where you don’t have to kill the deer?
- Schwartz – The best tests are tissues collected from the carcass, but a few years ago we realized there are other ways. We held a summit 2 years ago, brought in experts on live animal testing.
- Campbell – Do you have statutory authority to asses a fee for inspection?
- Schwartz – Yes we do have that authority.
- Campbell – I see there are fees you could collect and don’t why is that?
- Schwartz – We did not want to put a burden on the livestock industry so those fees were not passed. We still have statutory authority to assess fees for inspection, but the commission has not been supportive of that.
- Campbell – Is there a plan to assess fees for the inspections you do?
- Schwartz – No.
- Nelson – There has been a reduction in federal funds, has that affected your mission?
- Schwartz – Yes, USDA appropriations have decreased from Congress, this is a result of a lack of knowledge among citizens about where food comes from.
- Nelson – But you have asked for everything you think you need?
- Schwartz – Yes.
Soil & Water Conservation Board
George Dziuk, LBB
- Reviewed LBB recommendations and exceptional items
- Kolkhorst horst – Can you speak to the effectiveness of the Carrizo Cane eradication?
- Dzuik – I would defer to the agency
Jose Dodier, Chairman, and Rex Isom, Exec. Dir., Texas Soil and Water Board
- Budget of water supply enhancement program reduced by half by veto proclamation
- Exceptional item $1.4m for funding of water supply enhancement
- Kolkhorst horst – Restates Carrizo Cane question
- Isom – We have worked on hundreds of miles of the border on this issue. It is important to reseed the ground after those plants die.
- Kolkhorst horst – This is dangerous work along the border, are we having trouble getting people to do that? People are being shot who are taking this down
- Isom – Yes there is some difficulty getting people to do the work.
- Perry – question on dam rehab
- Isom – Dam rehab is one of our agency’s main focus, it is a major part of our program
- Perry- What is a high hazard dam?
- Engineer for soil and water – A high hazard dam is a dam that would cost 7 or more lives if the dam fails
- Perry – And there are 428 high hazard dams that don’t meet standards, what does that mean?
- Engineer – A lot of the high hazard dams were built decades ago when failure would have flooded farmland. So, they were not built as high hazard, but they are now high hazard.
- Isom – Corridor runs from SA up to Oklahoma, 2 or 3 dams a year are being reclassified as high hazard due to new developments.
- Nelson – How do you determine if it is a state or federal dam?
- Perry – It depends on the acre-foot retention and when the dam was built
- Isom – We generally deal with 200-acre feet or below.
- Perry – A large part of the reason for the flood in Houston was because those dams had not been improved to meet the standards they needed to meet.
- Hinojosa – Question on governor’s veto of $1.2m for water supply enhancement program
- Isom – The problem has not been completely corrected, I think that last session we did not communicate effectively to the governor the importance of this program
- Hinojosa – I believe his objection was to private landowners using funds for their own benefit?
- Isom – We are working to communicate to the governor the importance of the public-private partnership
- Campbell- Carrizo Cane is detrimental to water conservation because it takes so much water. It also provides a shield to anyone trying to cross the border. Do we have any federal funds that can help us with this?
- Isom – We are working with Congressman Cuellar on this issue
Texas Water Development Board
Pam Bolton, LBB
- Budget is $362.2m in all funds for 20-21
- $195m in all funds, $65.9m GR for debt service
- Nelson – Flood planning and mitigation is going to be a big budget issue, tell me what flood related activity is going to have to be accounted for in the budget? What is currently funded at TWDB?
- $90.7m in all funds, only $2.7m from GR. These help local governments with national flood insurance program. Also do floodplain mapping. Old maps are in use, which lead to bad predictions due to changing geology.
Peter Lake, Chairman, TWDB
- Science planning and finance for water security
- $1.8B for water infrastructure through SWIFT, in total SWIFT has helped fund $8B in infrastructure projects
- TWDB Executive Director – Gives overview of exceptional items
- $4.4m and 10 FTEs for flood planning mapping initiatives
- Groundwater funding package, $1m and 4 FTEs
- “Strat mapping”, $3m
- Riders
- Increase ag grant limitation from 600k to at least $1.2m
- Nelson – What do we get for $3m in “strat mapping”?
- Exec Dir – That is only seed money
- Watson – I have had problems with mapping in my district, where the local community know an proposed facility will eventually be flooded, but the facility wants to go by FEMA maps, which can be outdated. Is there any way to not rely on FEMA?
- Lake – Ideally we would like to update these maps for the local communities so they can act on that information
- Perry – I have the state flood plan out there publicly, the first line item request is for $71m over 5 years for mapping
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
LBB Presentation
- Gave overview of LBB recommendations
- Hinojosa – Last session we approved some funding for non-attainment communities but was vetoed by Abbot, do you recall the specific issue Abbott had with that?
- McGeady – It was a little over 6m for near non-attainment, the veto states that it should provide funding for non-attainment areas
John Niermann, Chairman TCEQ
- Hinojosa – Question about air quality in Corpus Christi and compliance with clean air act
- Toby Baker, Exec. Dir CEQ – CC has very clean air at the time, but we could send someone from the agency to help with compliance
- Hinojosa – Restates question to LBB about Abbots veto
- Baker – I do not recall the reason
- Birdwell – In regard to governor veto is the problem that the feds give us no credit for money spent on attainment, is that a fair way to characterize it?
- Baker – Yes that is fair
- Birdwell – Many communities are worried about the cost of being pulled into non-attainment. The goal posts on attainment keep moving, and until the federal congress gets the EPA in check, if we don’t spend the money in attainment areas they will get sucked into non-attainment. Am I correct there is an economic impact to non-attainment?
- Baker – Yes that is correct
- Hancock – Question about complying federal government’s requirements
- Baker – We have had some bad methods of compliance in the past
- Nichols – Expedited processing of air permit applications, what is the average time to get an air permit?
- Baker – Around 2 years
- Nichols – And businesses are paying for this expedited process?
- Baker – Yes, they pay a surcharge
- Nichols – How long would it take if ti is not expedited?
- Baker – It depends on the size of the permit, if it is not very technical it could take 90 days or less
- Nichols – Can you get data on different categories of permit applications and how long it will take? We need to make this process faster to promote economic growth
- Baker – We can get you that data
- Nichols – On TERP there is an income stream and an expenditure stream, and there is around a $100m surplus correct?
- Niermann – Yes
- Nichols – And in the meantime we have non-attainment areas that could be using those dollars, but they are just sitting there?
- Niermann – Yes we could be using those dollars.
- Nichols – Why don’t we spend more money on projects with the highest return?
- Niermann – We spend the bulk of our money on the diesel replacement programs that give us the highest returns
- Nichols – Are there any projects we could do that are not necessarily on the list of legislature approved projects?
- Niermann – Most efficient way is to give more money to the diesel replacement program
- Nichols – There are chicken processing plants that are producing a stench that makes it impossible for the neighbors to go outside, but by the time the inspector gets there the winds changed and the smell is gone, what can we do about that?
- Baker – That is a problem and we are working on it
- Birdwell – Discusses problem rural and suburban counties becoming dumping ground for urban counties.
- Birdwell – We offer expedited permitting, but the state does not appropriate for that, it all comes from fee for that process. Would the FTEs you are asking for be employees or contractors paid for by those fees?
- Baker – The FTEs we are requesting would be state employees. The rider request for increasing the cap would be for contractors.
- Niermann – If we have expedited projects that consume the 1.2m hour cap, then another business requests an expedited permit, we cannot process it dues to the cap.
- Birdwell – So raising that threshold is not appropriating more money, it is allowing for man hours which are paid for by expedited fees
- Baker – That is correct.
- Birdwell – Question about TERP as a “State of Texas freedom preservation issue” rather than a dollars and cents issue
- Niermann – That is correct, TERP allows Texas to retain primacy over federal regulators
- Flores – Question about monitoring of frack sand mines, particulate matter in the air, etc.
- Baker – All frack mines have to register with TCEQ, to fully answer I would have to get a little more granular on exactly what kind of facilities we are talking about
- Flores – Do you have an environmental crimes division?
- Baker – Yes
- Hinojosa – Communities close to non-attainment lost a lot of funding due to the veto. Hinojosa reads the veto statement.
- Hinojosa – We should find a way to deal with the governor’s objections to the bill
- Campbell – I have a lot of people concerned with the way TCEQ is handling monitoring of air quality in regard to quarries
- Baker – We monitor around those areas
- Campbell – You are sometimes monitoring 3 or 4 miles away from the quarry, I would advise you improve that process
Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission
George Dzuik, LBB
- Increase in funding to maintain 18-19 levels
- Reviews exceptional items
John M. Salsman, Vice Chair, Low Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission
- Gives overview of history and function of the commission
- Hinojosa – When this compact was created it was between Texas and Vermont?
- Salsman – Maine was also included but they dropped out
- Hinojosa – Is there any risk in allowing other states to join>
- Salsman – We have not directly opened to any other states, and we have the right to say no to any request to import waste. Each time we receive a request to import waste we review the request