Senate Finance: Article VIII – February 15, 2023

The Senate Committee on Finance met on February 15th to discuss the following Article VIII agencies. This report focuses on LBB and agency presentations for the following topics:

• Public Utility Commission
• Office of Public Utility Counsel
• Department of Insurance
• Office of Public Insurance Counsel
• Office of Injured Employee Counsel
• State Office of Administrative Hearings
• Texas Medical Board
• Texas Board of Nursing
• Board of Dental Examiners
• Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners
• Board of Pharmacy
• Behavioral Health Executive Council
• Securities Board
• Racing Commission
• Department of Licensing and Regulation
• Board of Professional Geoscientists
• Special Provisions Relating to All Regulatory Agencies

A video of part one of the hearing can be found here and part two can be found here.

This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions 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.

 

Public Utility Commission

Jeb Bell, LBB

• LBB presentation here
• Total $45.1m; 6% increase; maintaining FTEs
• Increase $2.6m for general employee salary raises
• Removal of one-time funding for build out of additional commissioner offices
• Recommendations do not include a request by the agency to receive self-funded, self-leveling designation
• Overviews Sunset recommendations including the agency be continued for 6 years
  • Also include House Appropriations and Senate Finance should consider appropriating PUC its exceptional item requests for funding a data analytics and increasing PUC’s appropriation to ensure it can recover its costs to regular water/wastewater utilities
  • Direct PUC to develop a reliability standard before May 1
• Texas Universal Service Fund rate increase to 24%; will last August 2022 to August 2023
• The PUC suggests increasing the appropriation from this GR-D account $5m per FY or shifting the financing of water regulation from Fund 153 to GR
• 8 exceptional items totaling $19m with 33 FTEs; one item requests funding for a data analytics team for $1.91m
• Schwertner – Data analytics team is an important endeavor to consider
• Schwertner – Waste water line item?
  • 153 fund account capped at $3.1m, would need to be administratively changed by TCEQ
• Perry – Have a bill filed that would take the water/wastewater aspect out of the PUC because of the complexity it
• Kolkhorst – Self funded self-leveling designation was not recommended in the base bill; if self-leveled would be a replacement of GR?
  • Would have to be a statue change to change their designation
• Kolkhorst – Have been hesitant to do that; need to make sure PUC has a sufficient amount of employees; notes RRC has grown as the legislature has required more including weatherization
• Chair Huffman – Some appropriate items were left out so members could work through them
• Nichols – Have not heard about making a new regulatory body to regulate water; notes giving regulation back to TCEQ is not the way to do it

 

Peter Lake, Chairman PUC

• Have increased responsibility, including with water, and have less employees; need resources to attract/keep talent

 

Thomas Gleeson, Executive Director PUC

• Will focus on three exceptional items
• $4.5m each FY for 51 additional FTEs; have lost many professionals and attorney turnover has been 50%
• Asking for GR funding for a 5 percent salary increase for all agency staff and a 10 percent salary increase for Attorneys and other licensed professionals to reduce staff turnover rates
• Asking for GR and GR-D funding with authority for an additional 3 FTEs to establish a new Office of Public Participation; have already stood the division up and want to build this out
• Asking for GR funding for a data analysis team within the Market Analysis division
• Asking for GR funding for an Energy Efficiency Plan and Outreach team
• Requests are prudent to meet the demands of the state
• Schwertner – Agree you need more FTEs; how much are you asking for water/wastewater?
  • 50% of additional GR resources would go to water
• Schwertner – Have been sections in SB 3 that have not been implemented including emergency pricing and cost causation; requesting enough FTEs to fully implement?
  • Yes, and both are in the queue to be done; had
• Schwertner – Sunset noted issues with the verbal directives from PUC to ERCOT?
  • Lake – Have not been advised of that
• Schwertner – Nodal Protocol Revision Request 1156 comments about verbal directives? Seems to be in contradiction to the advice given by the legislature
  • Lake – Not aware, will look into it
• Hancock – Have you seen new security council be effective and are there budgetary needs?
  • Lake – Yes; outside of agency appropriations need funding for security of the grid
  • Exceptional item 3 is about improving cybersecurity posture
• Perry – Agree utility and water are totally different processes?
  • Lake – Agree
• Perry – If we were to move that to its own would it be beneficial to your operations?
  • Lake – Water deserves its own center of focus; either needs its own or more funding at PUC
• Zaffirini – Benefit of becoming self-funded and self-leveling?
  • If there was a need for agencies to do budget reductions, would be exempt
• Zaffirini – Requested sufficient funding to cover all responsibilities?
  • Some are covered in request and provided Sunset with estimates of what it would take to fund all initiatives
• Zaffirini – Can meet creation of a state reliability standard deadline?
  • Are working towards that; will take possibility longer than May 1
• Zaffirini – Retention is only a salary issue?
  • Salaries and caseload
• Zaffirini – Of exceptional items which is most important?
  • Additional FTEs and retention are priority
• Zaffirini – Method of finance change you note will be a rate decrease for water utility customers?
  • Fee is set by TCEQ set around 0.5% to 1.5% based on their gross revenues
  • Would change to our gross receipts assessment is 1/6 of whatever they are paying today
• Chair Huffman – How much do you pay a starting attorney? Losing out to the private sector?
  • $70k and has not affected turnover rates; yes
• Chair Huffman – Need attorneys that specialize in water issues?
  • Everyone works on every topic
• Chair Huffman – We need to have dependable staff and be willing to pay them as we are competing with the private sector; $70k is not competitive
• Whitmire – Should put a dollar amount to lost comp time
• Schwertner – Sunset staff, asks about PUC response to the NPRR1156?
  • Emily Johnson, Sunset Staff – Was concern among industry that directives need to be in writing; ERCOT’s concern that may be getting ahead of potential changes in law
• Schwertner – ERCOT will continue with verbal directives; are jumping ahead of us
  • Lake – Will look into this
• West – No market data analytics team there already? How would you get this info before?
  • No; Glotfelty felt we needed this on staff to leverage with universities like A&M who are already doing this work
• West – Historically there have been no checks and balances? This would allow for that?
  • Correct; have had no way to do independent modeling or verification
• West – Allows for accuracy we have not had before?
  • Correct; allows us to check the validity of numbers coming out of ERCOT

 

Office of Public Utility Counsel

Jeb Bell, LBB Staff

• LBB presentation here
• Total $5.2m; increase of 3.5% and maintaining FTEs
  • Includes salary increases
• Agency has trouble retaining staff including attorneys for water and wastewater cases
• Sunset recommendations include continuing the agency for 6 years and direct them to formalize and document certain contracting processes for legal expert witnesses
• HB 2853 required OPUC to certain provide broadband facilities; agency was granted $81k to implement this legislation, but have not followed through on this item
• New rider includes a Sunset contingency provision
• Two exceptional items totaling $1.65m including 6 additional FTEs

 

Country Hjaltman, Chief Executive and Public Counsel for OPUC

• UB authority has helped the agency have flexibility to participate in cases
• Budget increased case participation requirements from 30 to 40
• Two exceptional item requests in response to increases in workload
• For additional FTEs and $300k per FY for expert witnesses
• Chair Huffman – Agency suffers from ability to hold on to attorneys and effects agency’s work?
  • Correct; do not have a big budget to compete
• Schwertner – Any feedback on the new market proposals or are you more responsive?
  • Are not putting out proposals ourselves; we do not have the capability to hire those economists/engineers to provide the state with that information
• Schwertner – Have not requested money for a full-time expert?
  • Have not directly; part of the expert testimony exceptional item
• Schwertner – Will continue to rely on IMM and others for input on market changes
• Hinojosa – Have abilities to work on cases for smaller utilities/municipalities?
  • Sometimes we can, but typically work on larger cases
• Zaffirini – Savings to consumers could be more if you had appropriate staff numbers?
  • Would have to look into that
• Zaffirini – How do you prioritize cases?
  • Are required to be involved in bigger water/wastewater cases

 

Department of Insurance

Lyle Blanco, LBB Staff

• LBB presentation here
• Total $260.6m; decrease $46.7m and increase of 36 FTEs
• Includes an employee salary increase of $14m
• Overviews the self-leveling nature of TDI
• Recommendations include continuation of contingency funding for state regulatory response at the 2022-23 appropriated level
• Removal of funding provided for the temporary Health Insurance Risk Pool as the enabling statute expires in the 2022-23 biennium
• Recommendations include the continuation of Contingency Regulatory Response Rider and an increase of $4.4m in GR-D TDI Operating Account No. 36
• Rider deletions include deletion of the rider that specified amounts appropriated from GR-D Fund 36 to TxDOT
• Three exceptional items and rider requests; total $450k

 

Cassie Brown, Commissioner of Insurance TDI

Jeff Nelson, Commissioner Division of Workers Compensation TDI

• Thanks for the salary increases included in the base budget
• TDI is funded primarily by maintained taxes and fees
• Requesting additional $450k for replacement of vehicles in the agency’s fleet
• Perry – All insurance is under your umbrella?
  • Correct
• Perry – Breakdown of resource allocation? Biggest issue?
  • Largest division is financial regulation; ensures companies remain solvent to pay claims
• Perry – How much of the states health insurance plans are self-insured that do not fall under your umbrella? How many resources go towards this?
  • TDI regulates 17% of the health insurance market; takes a majority of our resources
• Perry – Think this is a conversation for another day as something that is 17% of your purview but takes up a majority of your resources
• Perry – Asks about how ensure solvency for companies?
  • License the insurance company and review their rates; last year saved consumers $16m in rate reviews
• Zaffirini – Employ the same criteria for men and women?
  • Correct; based on pre-injury wages
• Kolkhorst – Premiums will stabilize soon?
  • Not yet; inflation is the driving cost, not sure when inflation will stabilize
• Kolkhorst – Asks about windstorm defaults
  • Florida and Louisiana had insolvency; were stop gaps aimed to reduce effect on Texas
  • Insolvency happens a lot and all we can do is get advanced warning to alert consumers
• Hancock – All insurance has gotten more expensive – TWIA itself has worked to limit increases?
  • Consumers along the cost are buying three different policies
  • Have not seen as great increases in TWIA as in other markets
• Hinojosa – Mostly due to Governor and coastal representatives pushing back on rate increases
• Kolkhorst – Asks about involuntary increases in rates
  • Is an inflationary adjustment for insurers; consumers had the option to not take that automatic increase for TWIA
• Paxton – Division of workers compensation; was an 81% reduction in most addictive opioid prescriptions
  • Implemented a pharmacy formulary to bring those numbers down; other states have used our formulary as a model

 

Department of Licensing and Regulation

Blake Fall, LBB Staff

• LBB presentation here
• $94m; $2.3m increase and continues current FTE authority
• Removal of one-time funding collected due to contingent appropriation riders
• Recommendations include Financial Crimes Intelligence Center continued funding; not included is the agency’s request for an additional $5m in GR
• Recommendations include agency’s request for a new rider designating the partnered A&M agencies’ allocation from the appropriation made to TDLR for the operation and administration of the Motorcycle and Off-Highway Vehicle Operator Training Program
• $1.5m for the continuation for the anti-trafficking unit
  • Not included is the agency’s request for $2.1m for 14 FTEs for that program
• Sunset recommended State Board of Veterinary Examiners be added to TDLR for four years; full fiscal impact cannot be estimated at this time
• Modified riders are 9 and 14 and rider 13 related to Sunset contingency
• Nichols – Financial crimes have a request for $5m; any put in the base budget?
  • No; a continuation of funding
• Nichols – Unit is fairly new in Hughes’ district; is unique in the nation; impacts all of our districts
• Nichols – Highly recommend funding this

 

Mike Arismendez, Executive Director TDLR

• Since 2015 TDLR has had a 37% increase in the agency; Sunset report stated we had to adjust operations in response to pressure points
• Thanks for the 10% cost of living increase for staff
• Have assumed technical debt of the systems transferred to us
• Priority exceptional item is $32.9m to acquire a modern licensing system
• Exceptional item $3.2m to fund current FTE staff and increase salaries for IT staff
• Exceptional item increase of $5m to combat financial fraud; have recovered or diverted $51m in financial fraud
• Exceptional item request for $2.1m for 14 FTEs for the anti-trafficking program
• Nichols – Agency has a great reputation; concerned we do not overload the agency
• Nichols – How many licenses do you; will possibly be putting EV charging stations on you; Schwertner has filed a bill concerning this
  • Almost 900k licenses
  • Have been in conversation with Schwerner’s office
• Nichols – How much for those EV licenses? Heard would be $50
  • Do not have a fiscal note on that bill yet; will get back to you
• Nichols – Concerned about the high license cost to put in an electric charging meter
• Zaffirini – Timeline for new licensing system; would create efficiencies?
  • Would be cloud-based and reduce timeframe to generate licenses
• Zaffirini – How successful since passing legislation on card skimming?
  • Has been very successful
• Schwertner – Moving away from the Versa data system?
  • Versa is an antiquated legacy system; cloud base would be modern/comprehensive
• Schwertner – Have been controversies with the Vet Board’s system; what would you do with theirs when they move over?
  • We will work with them on what they have; if we get exceptional item funding, will help them move forward

 

Racing Commission

Thomas Galvan, LBB Staff

• LBB presentation here
• Total $13.9m and maintain FTE cap
• Increase of GR-D funds to maintain data services
• Includes salary increase and decrease in one-time moving funds
• $25m in exceptional items; includes changing method of finance through legislation
• Added data center services funds
• Regulatory/Sunset contingency riders deleted

 

Amy Cook, Executive Director Racing Commission

• Equine industry and horse racing is an important cultural part of Texas; industry is at a crossroads and see a bright future
• Overviews efforts of the commission; are in a unique position to rebuild this agency
• Schwertner – Been discussion of sports betting at the capitol; other states have combined racing and gaming agencies, is your agency the correct one to handle that possible responsibility?
  • Yes
• Hinojosa – Appreciate your work to bring stability to this commission
• Zaffirini – Priority requests not funded?
  • 7 exceptional items including a new licensing system and changing the model of seasonal staff to full time staff
  • Need FTEs to prevent federal intervention and to keep participants safe
• Zaffirini – Before horse racing came to the state was a lot of dialogue that horse racing would cause gambling addictions and increased drug use; have seen significant problems with this?
  • No; have even been contacted by tracks in other states that they have economic incentives to move to Texas

 

Office of Public Insurance Counsel

Lyle Blanco, LBB Staff

• LBB presentation here
• Total $2.1m and maintaining FTEs; increase of $121k
• Includes salary increases
• 3 exceptional items totaling $1.2m

 

David Bolduc, Acting Public Council OPIC

• Have saved consumers $22m
• Overviews exceptional item requests
• Schwertner – Have filed bills with OPIC getting involved in network adequacy; have staff necessary to get involved in that?
  • Do not currently have the staff to do that
• Zaffirini – How account for consumer savings?
  • Analyze rate filings and working closely with TDI analysist
• Hinojosa – Asks about increased workload and staff resources; we need to adequately fund your agency
  • Staff has gone down and filings/complexity has increased

 

Office of Injured Employee Counsel

Lyle Blanco, LBB Staff

• LBB presentation here
• Total $18.8m; increase of $1.4m; maintain FTEs
• Includes salary increases
• Sole method of finance is GR-D account 36
• Two exceptional items totaling $3m
• Hinojosa – Dedicated account?
  • Under same account TDI uses
• Hinojosa – Fees charged by OPIC goes to GR not the dedicated fund?
  • Correct; is in statute

 

Eric Marta, Deputy Public Counsel OIEC

• Two exceptional items for additional funding for: salaries for appointed public counsel and staff
• Notes issues with staff retention
• Zaffirini – If funded exceptional item would be in addition to the across the board pay raises?
  • Yes; workload is complex/large

 

State Office of Administrative Hearings

Jeb Bell, LBB Staff

• LBB presentation here
• Total $24.3n and maintaining FTEs
• Includes salary increases for employees
• Recommendations maintain the agency’s 2022-23 hourly billing rate of $150; do not include the agency’s request to increase the hourly billing rate to $165 in Rider 7
• 3 exceptional items totaling $1.3m

 

Kristofer Monson, Chief Administrative Law Judge SOA

• Largest docket by number are driver’s license cases
• Are funded through GR and interagency contracts
• First exceptional item is GR funding for a 5% salary increase for field-office judges and IT staff
• Second exceptional item is GR funding for tech to support a new hybrid-appearance model
• Rider 3 not included in the base budget is an increase in hourly rate from $150 to $165 for cases funded through interagency contracts
• Hinojosa – Was a transfer of DPS caseload?
  • Just coming up to 6 months of data; are now fine-tuning increased efficiencies
• Hinojosa – DPS judges transferred to SOA?
  • Judges have always been at SOA, Sunset has transferred that authority to hear other cases as well

 

Texas Medical Board

Blake Fall, LBB Staff

• LBB presentation here
• Total $32m and maintaining current FTEs
• Recommended rider change: deletion rider 4 as the agency is not at budgetary risk
• 18 exceptional items totaling $22.9m

 

Brint Carlton, Executive Director TMB

• Since last session have issue 1.3k licenses; license applications have grown since 2020
• TMB’s revenues have increased above 20%
• Increased workload without an increase in resources has caused staff shortages
• First exceptional item request for additional salary increases
• Many exceptional items are one-time costs such as records retention, e-file system, etc.
• If all exceptional items were requested, TMB would still be sending millions to GR per year
• Hall – What have you done to ensure doctors coming to Texas are not coming here with a license in jeopardy?
  • Staff more motivated to update physician’s profile with pertinent information
  • Changed rules criminal history reporting rules among other pieces of info
  • Asking for additional funding to do more such as an e-file system and finger printing
  • Streamlining during COVID had to have a sponsoring physician in the state
• Hall – Thought about a statement they could sign under oath? Any legislation you need to ensure you are being thorough about these out-of-state doctors?
  • Continuous query would be beneficial among the items mentioned above
• Hall – Required to investigate any complaint you get?
  • Statute requires us to accept complaint then classify; many are eliminated at that stage
• Hall – Need to talk about possible statute changes to focus on protecting first-hand patients rather than other complaints
  • If it was only limited to patient or direct family account or purely to keep patients safe, possible something slips through the cracks
• Kolkhorst – Had large number of complaints from out of state?
  • During the pandemic had many complaints based on social media posts; vast number were dismissed
• Kolkhorst – Will work with you unwinding things incorrectly done during the pandemic
• Kolkhorst – Texas Physician Health Program administratively attached; funded properly?
  • Would benefit from a different funding mechanism; funds come from fees
  • About 300 participants in the program
• Kolkhorst – Would be a statutory change?
  • Yes
• Kolkhorst – Status of PHE waivers?
  • Majority have gone away; one the pandemic has ended, would be a 30 day wind down
• Kolkhorst – Would take the state declaration ending or federal?
  • State

 

Texas Board of Nursing

Sean Leeper, LBB Staff

• LBB presentation here
• Total $28m and maintaining FTEs
• Increase of $1.3m due to salary increases
• Four exceptional items totaling $2.9m

 

Kathy Shipp, President BON

• Supports the increase in salaries

 

Kathy Thomas, Executive Director BON

• Have 520k licenses the board oversees; workload continues to increase
• Exceptional items include GR fundings for increases in staff compensation to recruit/retain qualified nursing and legal services
• Exceptional item request funding for 10 FTEs to help process applications
• Exceptional item request GR funding to move digital storage to the cloud
• Exceptional item request GR funding to move microfiche documents to digital imaging
• Hinojosa – Received complaints nursing students are required to take a pre-test?
  • Requirement of the school; used for assessing where the student is
• Hinojosa – Asks about students being held back?
  • Board has guidelines preventing that
• Hinojosa – Requirements for instructors?
  • Board has general requirements; programs using more part-time staff than ever
• Hinojosa – State program that pays of nursing student loan?
  • Faculty loan repayment program and nursing shortage program have been beneficial
• Hinojosa – Instructor salary is much lower than a nurse?
  • Faculty are paid on par with other state, but hospitals are competition

 

Board of Dental Examiners

Blake Fall, LBB

• LBB presentation here
• Total $9.6m and maintaining current FTEs
• Removal of a number of one-time funds
• Four exceptional items of $1.6m

 

Dr. David Yu, Dental Board

• Sunset required the board to inspect sedation providers; have completed those inspections
• Need to increase salaries to recruit/retain employees; including our acting ED

 

Leticia Kappel, Acting Executive Director Dental Board

• Have over 3k licensees
• Exceptional item request GR funding for a 10% salary increase for eligible employees
  • Have had staffing issues across the board especially attorneys
• Exceptional item request GR funding to reclassify an Investigator VII position as a Director of Investigations position
• Exceptional item request bi-annual contribution to HPC’s exceptional item requests if adopted would be $33,650
• Exceptional item request GR funding to cover anticipated vendor cost increases for Peer Assistance program

 

 

Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners

Sean Leeper, LBB Staff

• LBB presentation here
• Total $3M increase of $150K and maintain 21 FTEs
• Increase of $216K for general state employee salary
• Sunset commission recommended attaching to TDLR for 4-year period
• Agency failed to meet 5% reduction required by HB 2
• Recommend deleting sunset contingency
• 10 exceptional items totaling $3M and 8 FTEs

 

Brittany Sharkey, Executive Director VME

• New administration is in place at the agency and are moving in the right direction
• Getting ready to enter into an MOU with TDLR
• Working with DIR on a needs assessment
• Exceptional item request GR funding to purchase a software application to be used as the new data system
• Exceptional item request GR funding to provide a 15% salary increase for all eligible employees
• Exceptional item request GR funding to develop and implement a career ladder program
• Exceptional item request GR funding for 6 investigator FTEs
• Exceptional item request GR funding for 1 FTE for a staff veterinarian to perform medical reviews
• Exceptional item request GR funding to cover increased vendor costs of Texas Pharmacy Association’s Professional Recovery Network for the peer assistance program
• General Revenue funding for case preparation associated with cases anticipated to be filed with the State Office of Administrative Hearings
• Hinojosa – VME requested to be left off the Prescription Monitoring Program; have heard there is an increase in stolen controlled substances?
  • Yes; work with the DEA on those cases
• Hinojosa – Is a big problem there is no oversight on these opioids; may come back to include them in the PMP
  • Agree; why we have the request to double investigative staff
• Paxton – Support Hinojosa’s sentiments; data on investigations?
  • Currently conducted 248 this year and opened 4 cases
• Paxton – Once there is an open case, what is the process? Feel you have authority to address what you need to?
  • Have informal settlements, but then can escalate to SOA
  • Yes; mostly resource and staffing issues

 

Board of Pharmacy

Sean Leaper, LBB Staff

• LBB presentation here
• Total $27m increase of $6.8m; maintaining FTEs
• Increase of $7.4m for Narxcare and Statewide Integration for the Prescription Monitoring Program
• Rider 5 identifies funding for the PMP is not subject to Appropriations Limited to Revenue Collections requirements
• 6 exceptional items totaling $6.4m

 

Julie Spier, President Board of Pharmacy

Megan Holloway, Board of Pharmacy

• Exceptional item request GR funding to fill vacant positions
• Exceptional item request GR funding to address increases in court reporter costs, expert fees, and the agency’s peer review contract
• Exceptional item request GR funding to update the Texas Wholesale Distributor Database and the RxPad system
• Exceptional item request GR funding for 10 FTEs
• Requests ED salary is moved from a schedule 4 to a schedule 5
• Hinojosa – PMP data system working smoothly? Thank you for your work
  • System has become integrated and have made great strides with it
• Hall – During COVID board got between the doctor and patient on what drugs were used; now some pharmacies went rogue and refused to fill prescription; need to do something legislatively or something the board can handle?
  • Believe what we have in place takes care of the issue
  • Have not seen any disciplinary action happen in the case you are talking about
• Paxton – Are pharmacists being directed to question doctors on specific drugs?
  • There was never any such directive; are to use their best judgement and there are checks and balances
• Paxton – Want to ensure we do not have things in place that are creating a chilling effect for good care of patients
• Hall – If the doctor stands by what they prescribe, then they should be the final call
  • Is a fine line to walk there; is the pharmacists’ responsibility if they see something wrong
• Chair Huffman – Is a good discussion, may need to be held elsewhere

 

Behavioral Health Executive Council

Sean Leaper, LBB Staff

• LBB presentation here
• Total $10.7M increase of $500K maintain 68 FTEs
• Two exceptional items total $353K

 

Darrel Spinks, Executive Director BHEC

John Bielamowicz, Chairman Texas State Board of Examiners and Psychologist

• Two challenges that the state faces, shortage of practitioners and access to care.
• Thank you for additional funding and support
• The big part of the agency’s success is due to the staff level
• Asking for $141,204 in market parody salary adjustment
• Asking for $25,458 in merit salary rewards

 

Securities Board

Blake Fall, LBB Staff

• LBB presentation here
• Funding at base request $16M
• Agency is operating at 79.3 FTEs of 92 FTE cap
• Budgeting for 84.3 FTEs
• Recommend FTE cap of 85
• $1M increase for state salary adjustment
• 6 exceptional items total $3.3M and 8 FTEs and 1 rider request

 

Tavis Iles, Commissioner of Securities Board

• Thank you for support and opportunity to make changes to items
• Exceptional item to recover lapsed funds and provided salary compensation
• Because FTEs have been reduced exceptional items 2 & 3 now reflect 85 FTEs
• Exceptional item contingent basis for members of board to consider category 5 exempt position
• Exceptional item contingency for lump sum payouts
• Exceptional item block chain financial analysis and software tools to help identify bad actors in crypto
• West- Your anticipating paying FAs $60K each, is that sufficient?
  • Yes, it is a sufficient next step.
• West- 375K for retirement level staff, are you anticipating large number of turnovers?
  • Yes, many of our employees have been with agency for 35 years

 

Board of Professional Geoscientists

Blake Fall, LBB Staff

• LBB presentation here
• Recommend $1.2M and 7.5 FTEs increase of $16K
• Recommend removal of 1 time funding
• Increase of funding for statewide salary increase
• 2 exceptional items totaling $186K

 

Rene Truan, Executive Director Board of Professional Geoscientists

• Identified that agency can strengthen partnership with other agencies
• Turned attention to education outreach
• 63% of current licensees are over 55, currently do not have authority to issue retirement status or inactive license status
• Texas is 1 of 32 states that regulates Geoscience
• Exam changed from in person to computer-based exam
• Manage over $4.6K total licenses annually
• Revenue estimate is $1.5M
• Total appropriation request $1.4M
• Exceptional item $45K for 2 FTEs
• Exceptional item $6K to manage regulatory database

 

Special Provisions Relating to All Regulatory Agencies

Sean Leaper, LBB Staff

• LBB presentation here
• Recommend changes to Article VIII reflect funding changes for Prescription Monitoring Programs & Health Professions Council

 

Public Testimony

Emily Brizzolara-Dove, Texas 2036

• Support of PUC exceptional item on staffing
• New duties from SB 3

 

Brian Lloyd, Oncor Electric Delivery

• In support of PUC budget request and exceptional items
• 40% of all Texans served off our distribution grid
• Fully regulated by PUC
• Annual revenue need of $5.8B for case

 

Ashley Myers, Texas Association of Water Companies

• In support of PUC appropriation ask
• Agencies headcount level is below headcount from 20 years ago

 

Cyrus Reed, Lone Star Chapter Sierra Club

• PUC and OPUC are under Sunset
• Behind on rule making due to shortage of staff
• In support of PUC Item 1
• In support of Office of Public Engagement for PUC
• In support of energy efficiency plan
• In support of OPUC Exceptional item request
• OPUC may need additional staff for broadband

 

Kenneth Flippin, US Green Building Council

• In support of PUC and OPUC exceptional item request
• Is important for PUC to step up energy efficiency programs

 

Charles Miller, Texas 2036

• Texas based market health exchange
• Texas could operate their own healthcare exchange for about $150M a year

 

Zachary Jones, Anesthesiologist

• In support of testimony for Texas Medical Board
• In support of exceptional items for more staffing, more resources, and strong physician health program
• In support of boards ability to retain fees it collects around 60%

 

Jack Frazee, Texas Nurses Association

• In support of Board of Nursing LAR and Exceptional items
• Would help address current nursing shortage

 

Steven Golla, Texas Board of Veterinary Examiners

• Agency’s data management system needs funding for updates

 

Samantha Mixon, Texas Board of Veterinary Examiners

• Board has added 2.2k new licensees since 2017 without increasing staff
• In support of $1.6M

 

Trent Hightower, Texas Veterinary Medical Association

• In support of TBVME apportions request and exceptional items
• Most of agency’s issues is due to lack of funding
• In support of more efficient data management system

 

Bryan Mares, National Association of Social Workers Texas Chapter

• Need to look at licensing barriers
• Exam is not fair and impartial, defies Texas statute
• Reform for exam
• Temporarily waving second and third-time test fees

 

Ray Hymel, Texas Public Employees Association

• Thank you to legislature for pay raise
• In support of help with employee retention

 

Serena Bumpus, Texas Nursing Association

• In support of the Board of Nursing LAR and exceptional items request
• Funding requests align with addressing nursing shortage in Texas

 

Keith Pardue, Texas Board of Veterinary Examiners

• In support of TVME apportions request and exceptional items
• 52% of staff turnover
• 81% of staff is below midlevel pay