On Monday, 3/18 and the 70th day of the legislative session, the House Committee on Appropriations passed out HB 1 as substituted, with 25 ayes and 1 nay.
The Appropriations committee also voted out the Supplemental Appropriations bill SB 500, as substituted. An infographic on the supplemental bill, as substituted, is available.
Both HB 1 and SB 500, as substituted, are listed on the House Calendar for Wednesday, March 27.
As Chair Zerwas laid out the biennial budget bill he noted that as substituted, House Bill 1 (HB 1) spends $114.6 billion of general revenue, well under the Comptroller’s Biennial Revenue Estimate (BRE) of $119.1 billion. The bill also includes approximately $2 billion of items funded with the Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF), out of the projected $15.4 billion included in the BRE. HB 1 is within all four Constitutional spending limits.
Speaker Bonnen notified the House chamber that the bill will be brought to the floor on Wednesday, March 27. It is expected that a calendar rule will be adopted for proposed amendments and pre-filing of amendments for HB 1 will need to be filed by 10 a.m. on Sunday.
Spotlight on some of the items in the bill include:
General Government – Article I
- $100M ESF is provided to the Office of the Governor for disaster response and recovery grants.
Health and Human Services – Article II
- HB 1 includes $173.4M in GR to address capacity demands for behavioral health services including fully funding additional inpatient psychiatric services and access to residential treatment beds for children. Included in this amount is funding for substance abuse disorder (SUD) treatment, including $23.6M GR to address the waitlist for pregnant women and women with dependent children, and $26.4M GR to increase SUD provider rates.
- The Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) program is provided with an additional $72.6M GR in order to fund caseload growth and create provider stability.
- $88.1M GR is provided to the three women’s health programs at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to meet caseload growth and fund providers that serve rural and underserved areas.
Education – Article III Public Education
- The Foundation School Program (FSP) is provided with an additional $9B GR to fund HB 3 as introduced.
- The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is provided with $50M GR for special education grants.
- TEA is also provided with $64.5M GR (out of $109.4M total allocated for school safety efforts) for increased investment in Communities in Schools and the agency’s Safe and Healthy Schools initiative.
Higher Education
- $80M GR is provided for TEXAS Grants to maintain 70% of eligible students in all pathways. This amount funds growth and maintains the percentage of eligible students for these grants.
- $18.5M GR is provided for the small institution supplement to help growing institutions that do not yet generate enough formula funding to operate on their own.
- $210M GR is provided to increase formulas for General Academic Institutions ($104.3M), Health-Related Institutions ($54.9M) and Community Colleges ($47.2M for Success Points and $3.8M for Core Funding).
- An additional $60M is provided to support the goal of achieving of a 1.1 to 1 ratio of residency slots to medical school graduates.
Natural Resources – Article VI
- The Texas Department of Agriculture is appropriated $540K GR to fund Access to Rural Health Services.
- The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is provided $15.4M GR for increased visitation at Texas State Parks, by funding critical staffing needs, equipment, and repairs.
- The Texas Soil and Water Conservation Board is appropriated $3.8M GR for funding dam rehabilitation projects.
- The Water Development Board is appropriated $8.5M GR for strategic mapping, floodplain mapping, hydraulic river and coastal mapping, and flood monitoring.
Business and Economic Development – Article VII
- $200M GR is provided to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for improvements to the Drivers License Program, contingent upon the transfer of the Driver License Program from DPS to DMV.
Capital Needs Across State Agencies
- At the Texas Facilities Commission, appropriations include $106M ESF for health and safety projects, $121.1M ESF for deferred maintenance, and $23.6M ESF for facility renewal and LBJ Building construction.
- HHSC is appropriated approximately $658.6M ESF for Phase II of Comprehensive Plan for State Hospitals, including $592M ESF for new hospitals in San Antonio and Austin, and a new wing at Rusk.
projects at their facilities. - TPWD is provided with almost $98M ESF for capital needs, and health and safety and deferred maintenance projects at parks statewide.
Information Technology Needs at State Agencies
- HB 1 provides approximately $40M ESF for all Centralized Accounting and Payroll/Personnel System (CAPPS) projects.
- The bill also provides for $73M AF for agency requests related to information technology (IT) projects. Projects were designated into three areas; Cybersecurity, Legacy Systems Modernization, or a combination of both.
