Enrolled Bill Summary

            House Bill 28 amends several statutes relating to state and local government fiscal management, including increasing administrative efficiency in state government, and makes certain appropriations. The bill amends the Labor Code to abolish the Research and Oversight Council on Workers' Compensation on the effective date of the bill and transfers all records, property, and obligations of the council to the Texas Department of Insurance. It requires the department to conduct studies and research on specific issues related to the workers' compensation system, and it funds the department's new duties with a maintenance tax on insurance companies and self-insurance groups. The bill amends the Occupations Code to replace the Texas Commission on Private Security with a newly created seven-member Texas Private Security Board within the Department of Public Safety and on February 1, 2004, transfers all property, proceedings, functions, and activities of the former commission to the board or to the Texas Department of Health, as applicable. The bill requires the Texas Department of Health to administer provisions relating to the monitoring of personal emergency response systems. The governor must make initial appointments to the board not later than February 1, 2004.

            House Bill 28 amends the Government Code to provide that if, after conducting the annual study of school district property values for 2002, the comptroller determines that the local value for a school district is invalid and the local value exceeds the state value for the school district determined by the comptroller, the taxable value for the school district for that year is the district's state value as established by the comptroller. It amends the Education Code to specify that the tuition set-aside each institution of higher education is required to make to fund the B-On-time program is five percent of the amount of the tuition charged to a resident undergraduate student in excess of $46 per semester credit hour, and it requires the interim committee on higher education to evaluate whether students enrolled in private and independent colleges and universities should remain eligible to receive Texas B-On-time loans. House Bill 28 amends the Government Code to add semiconductors and nanotechnology to the list of areas the Texas Economic Development Bank is required to give special preference to in determining products and businesses that are eligible for financing, and it repeals a provision that limited the amount of funding that a single recipient may receive from the small business incubator fund.

            House Bill 28 authorizes the board of regents of the Texas Tech University System to issue bonds in an amount not to exceed $45 million to finance capital construction and improvements for the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center for an academic building to support the center's educational programs in El Paso. If sufficient funds are not available to the board to meet its obligations, the board is authorized to transfer funds between Texas Tech University and the center to ensure equitable allocation of available resources. The bill provides that any portion of bond proceeds not required for the academic building may be used by the system to renovate existing structures and facilities of the center. House Bill 28 authorizes the board of regents of Texas Southern University to issue bonds in an amount not to exceed $3,510,000 to restore campus facilities and infrastructure damaged by Tropical Storm Allison.

            House Bill 28 authorizes the commissioners courts of Ellis, Hill, and Williamson counties to pay the judges of the district courts having jurisdiction in their respective counties an annual salary for services rendered and for performing administrative duties. The bill amends the Government Code to authorize the State Council on Competitive Government to implement a common electronic infrastructure for a benefits enrollment and administration system that may be used by the benefits plan participants of each state agency.

            For the fiscal biennium beginning September 1, 2003, House Bill 28 appropriates to the comptroller the amount of cash needed from the general revenue fund to return any available cash that was transferred to that fund from a fund outside the state treasury, and it limits to $5 million the amount that may be used to allocate earned interest to a fund outside the state treasury. It appropriates to the comptroller for use for state fiscal relief, as directed by the governor and the Legislative Budget Board, certain federal funds received by the state and the appropriations vetoed by the governor in the General Appropriations Act. House Bill 28 repeals the appropriation made to the Supreme Court of Texas for technology advancement purposes by the General Appropriations Act, and it rededicates the permit fee revenue collected from permits for oversize or overweight vehicles carrying cargo to the state highway fund for the purposes described in the original dedication.

            House Bill 28 takes effect October 20, 2003, except for provisions relating to payment of judicial salaries in Ellis, Hill, and Williamson counties, which take effect January 11, 2004.