By Kubiak                                        H.R. No. 298

      75R6942 CCK-D                           

                                 R E S O L U T I O N

 1-1           WHEREAS, For the past decade, Texas has operated on tight

 1-2     budgets and an ever more frugal streamlining of government,

 1-3     attempting to trim excess expenditures and to increase the

 1-4     efficiency of the state's many diverse programs and operations; and

 1-5           WHEREAS, One consequence of this austerity has been a threat

 1-6     to the job security and benefits of state employees, who find

 1-7     themselves subject to downsizing, privatization, competitive

 1-8     contracting, agency merger, and other like trends, irrespective of

 1-9     the level or quality of their individual labor on behalf of the

1-10     public; and

1-11           WHEREAS, The Texas Public Employees Association, reacting to

1-12     such trends, has supported measures to protect its membership and

1-13     to mitigate the adverse employment effects that may accompany

1-14     government reinvention and reorganization in the pursuit of savings

1-15     to the taxpayer; and

1-16           WHEREAS, It is important that state lawmakers guard against

1-17     unsettling impacts on communities with a significant state payroll,

1-18     in the same way that they concern themselves with military base

1-19     closings, slumps in the oil or computer industries, the ravages of

1-20     drought on farmers and ranchers, and other disturbances of the

1-21     usual pace of commerce in particular locales or sectors of the

1-22     economy; now, therefore, be it

1-23           RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 75th Texas

1-24     Legislature hereby join with the Texas Public Employees Association

 2-1     in opposing legislation that would cause harm to state employees in

 2-2     the course of balancing or controlling the state budget; and, be it

 2-3     further

 2-4           RESOLVED, That the Texas House of Representatives hereby

 2-5     declare support for the principle that whenever state employees

 2-6     lose jobs with their agencies as a result of budgetary

 2-7     considerations, they be given first preference for like positions

 2-8     in other agencies and that whenever they transfer to other agencies

 2-9     or to private contractors who assume public functions, they retain

2-10     the benefits of their former employment.