The Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Economic Development has released its interim report to the 89th Legislature. The report covers workforce productivity, federal policy, hotel occupancy taxes, historical site designation, and cement production. Sens. Carol Alvarado (D-Houston), Cesar Blanco (D-El Paso), and Borris Miles (D-Houston) wrote response statements, and these are included at the front of the report. See below for a spotlight on recommendations from the report.
Study ways to increase the state’s workforce productivity, including access to childcare.
- Regulations on home-based childcare should be restricted to the extensive state health and safety measures expressed in relevant statutes, not to arbitrary local ordinances that are not practical for these smaller operations. It may be appropriate to establish an upper threshold for the number of non-family children who are served in home-based care to which local health and safety regulations should not apply.
- Coordination across the several agencies that regulate childcare needs to be improved, and any statutory prohibitions on that coordination need to be removed. Addressing this could take the form of a coordinating board, committee, or something similar to the tri-agency initiative created for workforce development. In either form, it is important to make sure that private and public providers have a seat at the table.
- Further, this effort should include data sharing across the agencies as well as the local workforce development boards. This data should be available to the public so stakeholders and governmental entities can make informed decisions and better address issues going forward.
- Given the degrading circumstance for childcare providers created by the state directed provision of expanded free pre-kindergarten services at school districts, the Legislature should consider requiring, or strongly encouraging, school districts to utilize public-private partnerships to the extent possible so that private providers are not penalized through the loss of the age group of children that make private care economically viable. Solutions that would strongly encourage the partnerships will need to find ways to overcome the challenges school districts and private providers find with the partnerships. Another option could come in the form of school choice legislation that is a priority for the Senate. The Legislature should examine and prioritize the level at which school choice legislation can incorporate the choice for parents to obtain prekindergarten services at the provider of their choice, so long as it is high-quality as required by school district pre-k education.
- Further examine the option for states to transfer unused funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program to the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) to increase the number of available Child Care Scholarships. More information is required to know if this is a good option for Texas, or if there are unknown encumbrances or other reasons those unused funds should not be transferred to this particular use.
- It can be difficult for childcare providers, parents, and employers to access resources for childcare programs, availability, waitlists, best practices, and other relevant information as these resources are spread across each childcare regulating agency. The legislature should direct the consolidation of these resources in a one-stop-shop format, housed under one agency’s website, with noticeable links on other agency’s websites to re-direct to that information.
- Childcare employee availability is a real problem, and a lack of that availability results in a lack of access to care for parents on a larger scale. The Legislature should create a priority category for eligible childcare workers to access childcare subsidies for their own children to ensure providers have the workforce necessary to support the larger workforce through childcare access.
Consider the impact to the Texas economy from federal interference including, but not limited to, restricting liquified natural gas exports, supply chain limitations, a net-zero carbon agenda, and other air emission provisions.
- The Legislature should continue to support the Office of the Attorney General as our primary defense mechanism against federal incompetence.
- The Legislature should continue to support state agencies as they attempt to comply with overbearing federal mandates with less federal resources being provided to them.
- Individual members of the Legislature should seek to further engage with relevant state agencies regarding the impacts of federal incompetence on their constituents’ lives and businesses. When engaging in federal rulemakings, agencies benefit from real world, state level experiences and damages to best communicate their position to federal agencies.
Examine current use and imposition of local option hotel occupancy taxes.
- Continue to monitor the level of hotel occupancy tax (HOT) reporting made by local governments to the Comptroller’s office for the next fiscal year to determine if there is any improvement from the increased focus from the Comptroller, the Texas Hotel and Lodging Association, the Texas Association of Counties, and the Texas Municipal League. If there is no improvement in the next reporting period, the Legislature should consider additional measures to increase reporting, such as clawing back a percentage of local hotel occupancy taxes.
- In the event that reporting levels increase, consider removing from statute unnecessary or unused authorizations that remain. This will help ensure the integrity of the hotel occupancy tax chapters is upheld and allows the Legislature to more effectively make decisions when amending those chapters.
- Continue monitoring the information obtained from local government reporting of hotel occupancy taxes. In particular, examine instances where local governments have collected
- large amounts of hotel occupancy tax revenue and are not utilizing those funds. Consider the need to implement a mechanism to discourage the improper collection of HOT revenue if it is not intended to be used under authorized conditions.
- Ensure that legislation regarding HOT that is passed directly promotes tourism and the hotel and convention center industry so that this tool remains an economic development tool, not a replacement for general revenue.
- Require the Comptroller to present reported HOT data in a more searchable and categorized manner, such as the Chapter 380 Local Agreements Database. This would assist interested parties in evaluating the data and therefore assist in holding local governments accountable when the revenue is misused.
Review the historical site district designation and how such designations contribute to cultural preservation, tourism, and community identity.
- The Legislature should continue support and funding for state agencies responsible for safeguarding Texas’ historic assets, including the Texas Historical Commission, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and the General Land Office. These agencies play a pivotal role in maintaining and restoring historic sites, and their efforts must be adequately resourced to meet growing demands.
- To ensure proactive measures in protecting historic sites, it is essential that these agencies maintain an open line of communication with the Texas Legislature, particularly as urban expansion begins to encroach on historically significant areas. Early and transparent communication will allow for a timely intervention and the implementation of strategies to protect these locations from development pressures.
- Lastly, the Committee recommends that the Legislature take additional action, when necessary, to protect, support, and restore major historic sites across the state. These steps should be guided by the recognition of the economic impact historic sites have through tourism, and their contribution to local economies. Prioritizing legislative efforts to safeguard these sites will ensure Texas’ cultural and historic heritage remains intact for future generations, while also promoting sustainable economic growth.
Examine the impacts of permanent cement production plants on local communities.
- Continue to work with the UT Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) to determine a realistic distance in which GlobalWafers is able to conduct their operations without vibrational disturbance at the bedrock level. Based on that feedback, create legislation to implement a zone in which any “aggregate production” applicant to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) who disturbs the bedrock must coordinate with BEG to determine if they can remain under any tolerances necessary for the wafer producer. If the applicant is not able to do so according to BEG, the permit should be denied by TCEQ. This may result in the need for the Legislature to give TCEQ the authority to postpone the decision on the pending Black Mountain permit. Additionally, this action needs to be investigated as a potential eminent domain “taking” of private property and how that should be addressed due to the nature of the unfortunate timing of the situation. Funding for BEG for the purpose of working with the applicant and the wafer producer will need to be identified, whether it is from the applicant, the wafer producer, the state, or a combination. For future wafer production sites in other areas, aggregate production operations should not be liable for rightfully producing natural resources if they create reasonable bedrock vibrations. As such, new wafer producers who implement a bedrock foundation system such as GlobalWafers should consult with BEG to understand locations of geologic formations that the state will need to produce in the future. This leads to the next recommendation.
- The Legislature should further consider funding the program created under Senator Hancock’s bill, SB 2196. The bill should be reexamined to determine if further specification is necessary to achieve the recommendations set forth here.
- Consider creating an “enhanced control” type permit and incentive to obtain that permit for quarry operations to alleviate public concerns regarding issues that are outside the scope of TCEQ’s scientific, environmental approach to permitting.
- Consider the need to reference federal blasting regulations such as the “z curve” in state statute and permit requirements to ensure blasting standards are upheld in Texas.
