House Committee on Appropriations 75th Legislature February 27, 1997 8:00 am Capitol Extension, E1.030 Pursuant to a notice posted on February 06, 1997, the House Committee on Appropriations met in a public hearing and was called to order by the Chair, Representative Robert Junell at 8:04 am. The roll was answered as follows: Present: Representatives Junell; Delisi; Cuellar; Eiland; Glaze; Heflin; Kubiak; Moreno; Mowery; Pitts; Price; Swinford; Walker; West, George "Buddy" (14). Absent: Representatives Averitt; Coleman; Davis; Finnell; Gallego; Greenberg; Haggerty; Hernandez; Hinojosa; Hochberg; Raymond; Tillery; Turner, Sylvester (13). A quorum was present. (Representatives Coleman; Finnell; Gallego; Haggerty; Hernandez; Hinojosa; Hochberg; Raymond; and Turner, Sylvester now present.) Administrative Hearings, State Office of Representative Kubiak moves to adopt the LBB budget as amended. Change the method of finance from hourly billing to general revenue funding for direct costs. Reduce agencies budgets based on estimated activity. Add to Article XI, $617,366 for change in method of finance for indirect costs in docket management from cost recovery to general revenue. Add rider to establish funding for mandated divisions. The motion was adopted. Cosmetology Commission Representative Kubiak moves to take up and consider the pending item to the agency's budget as follows: Add a contingent revenue rider for field inspectors and licensing examination staff. The motion is adopted. Board of Registration for Professional Engineers Representative Kubiak moves to take up and consider the pending item to the agency's budget as follows: Add a rider to increase interagency contracts for appropriate strategy. The motion is adopted. Finance Commission Representative Kubiak moves to take up and consider the pending items to the agencies' budget as follows: Adjust the salary amount in the bill pattern for the Executive Director to reflect the current salary. Revise Rider 1 in the Office of the Consumer Credit Commission to specify that funding is out of appropriation. The motion is adopted. Licensing and Regulation, Department of Representative Kubiak moves to take up and consider the following pending items to the agencies budget as follows: Add a rider limiting travel. Add a rider to redirect TDLR to maximize reciprocity agreements. Increase targets to tie to increase funding. Add a rider on elevators. Make a technical correction to Rider 3. The motion was adopted. Medical Examiners Representative Kubiak moves to take up and consider the following pending items to the agencies budget as follows: Add the salary language to the comptroller contingency rider. The motion is adopted. Veterinary Medical Testimony was taken. See witness list. Representative Kubiak moves to take up and consider the following pending items to the agencies budget as follows: Add a rider to permit the board to pay for 3/4 of an attorney. Add to Article XI a rider to dedicate the collected fee to peer assistance. The motion was adopted. Structural Pest Control Representative Kubiak moves to take up and consider the following pending items to the agencies budget as follows: Revise Rider 1 to appropriate exam fees in excess of $250,000 to avoid a cost to the bill. The motion was adopted. Public Utilities Commission Representative Kubiak moves to take up and consider the following pending items to the agencies budget as follows: Make two new technical corrections on Riders 2 and 3. The motion was adopted. (Representatives Averitt; Greenberg; and Turner, Sylvester now present.) Workers' Compensation Commission Testimony was taken. Sec witness list. Representative Kubiak moves to take up and consider the following pending items to the agencies budget as follows: Reallocate 54 Ombudsman. Reallocate positions for support personnel. Add to Article XI the mainframe upgrade, the replacement of PC's, and software upgrades. The motion was adopted. (Representative Davis now present.) Research and Oversight Council on Workers' Compensation Representative Kubiak moves to adopt the LBB budget. The motion was adopted. Article VIII, Special Provisions Representative Kubiak moves to take up and consider the following pending items to the agencies budget as follows: Revise Rider 1 on Peer Assistance. Add a new rider on Health Professions Council recommendations. Add a new rider 2, renumber other riders, on Biennial Review. The motion was adopted. ARTICLE II (cont's) Health and Human Service Commission Representative Eiland moves to adopt the LBB budget. Two new rider proposals on Medicaid Fraud Detection are left pending. The motion was adopted. At 9:55 am, on the motion of the chair and without objection, the meeting was recessed until 11:00 am or upon adjournment. The committee reconvened at 11:15 am and was called to order by the chair, Representative Junell. The roll was answered as follows: Present: Representatives Junell; Delisi; Coleman; Eiland; Finnell; Glaze; Greenberg; Hernandez; Hochberg; Moreno; Price; Raymond; Walker; West, George "Buddy" (14). Absent: Representatives Averitt; Cuellar; Davis; Gallego; Haggerty; Heflin; Hinojosa; Kubiak; Mowery; Pitts; Swinford; Tillery; Turner, Sylvester (13). A quorum was present. Department of Human Services, Texas (Representatives Heflin and Kubiak now present.) (Representative Gallego now present.) Representative Eiland moves to adopt the LBB budget as amended. Add $500,000 for each year in federal funds for Family Violence. Reduce GR by $455,711 for the biennium and replace with Title XX. Allocate $2.8 million in TANF funds for Automation changes related to TANF. Allocate $7.868,918 in FY '98 and $8,415,311 in FY '99 in TANF funds for the $50 disregard. As part of fund swap, reallocate $39.6 million in GR to match federal medicaid dollars in Community Care strategy and reallocate $3,612,183 in FY'98 and $5,604,820 in FY '99 in Title XX federal funds in Community Care Services. The committee reconvened at 1:55 pm and was called to order by the chair, Representative Junell. The roll was answered as follows: Present: Representatives Junell; Delisi; Averitt; Coleman; Cuellar; Davis; Eiland; Gallego; Glaze; Haggerty; Heflin; Hernandez; Hinojosa; Hochberg; Kubiak; Moreno; Mowery; Pitts; Raymond; Swinford; Turner, Sylvester; Walker; West, George "Buddy" (23). Absent: Representatives Finnell; Greenberg; Price; Tillery (4). A quorum was present. Article VII Housing and Community Affairs, Texas Department of Testimony was taken. See attached witness list. Representative Glaze moves to adopt LBB recommendations for the bill pattern. Representative Glaze moves to adopt LBB riders with the following amendments: Rider 3 (Home Match Rider), Rider 10 (Appropriations Limited to Revenue Collections, Rider 13 (Transfer for Federal Homeless Funds) and a new rider (Community Development Assistance). Motion to adopt Department of Commerce Allocation rider was withdrawn along with two of Representative Swinford's TDHCA riders were withdrawn. Lottery Commission, Texas Testimony was taken. See attached witness list. Representative Raymond moves to adopt a new bill pattern for lottery, the LBB budget for bingo and the following riders: Riders- Limitation on transfer authority; unexpended balances on advertising; appropriation lottery administration; compulsive gambling hotline; and three technical corrections to measures. The motion was adopted. (Representatives Finnell and Greenberg now present.) (Representative Tillery now present.) Fire Protection, Commission on Testimony was taken. See attached witness list. Representative Tuner moved to adopt the LBB budget with the exception of $151,000 for key rate inspections in FY 1998 and one technical correction. The following riders were adopted to the bill pattern: Prior Authorization to Work at Home, Prohibit the Compensatory Time from Home, Fire Department Inspections, Refer Complaints to the Office of the Attorney General, Functional Regional Offices. The motion was adopted. Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission Testimony was taken. See attached witness list. Representative Heflin moves to adopt the LBB technical correction to increase agency appropriation from fund 550; add additional funding from fund 550 to Article XI; and add new performance measures for superfund site evaluations and cleanups. The motion was adopted. Human Services, Department of Testimony was taken. See attached witness list. Representative Heflin moves to delete section D of section 7 under the department of Human Services. Motion to vote: 17 votes. (Representative Price now present.) ARTICLE III - PENDING ISSUES Texas Education Association Representative Greenberg lays out Rider 1 on Information Access. The motion was adopted. Representative Delisi lays out new performance measures on Parent/Teacher Conferences. The motion was adopted. Representative Junell lays out new rider on Board of Examiners of Psychologists. The motion was adopted. Representative Delisi lays out new rider on textbooks. The motion was adopted. Representative Delisi lays out new rider on Parental Involvement. The motion was adopted. Representative Davis lays out new rider on Committees in Schools. Rider is left pending. Representative Junell lays out new performance measures on Asian Americans, Native Americans and Anglo students. The motion was adopted. Representative Swinford lays out rider on Compensatory Education Funding. Rider is left pending. Representative Greenberg makes a motion to add funds to The School for the Blind and Visually Impaired for debt service for renovation of dorms. Rider is left pending. Animal Damage Control Service Representative Pitts lays out new rider on Feral Hog Control. The motion was adopted as amended. Article IV Pending Issues Representative Turner moved to add a contingency rider for requests from the Public Integrity Unit to Article XI. The motion was adopted. Article V Pending Issues Representative Turner moved to adopt a rider for legal costs for the State Office of Administrative Hearings and a contingency rider for requests from the agency. The motion was adopted. Representative Turner moved to adopt a sunset contingency rider for the Council on Sex Offender Treatment. The motion was adopted. Representative Turner moved to adopt two amendments to Rider #5 for the Department of Public Safety. Amendment number one relating to federal funds failed. Amendment number two relating to prioritization of seized assets monies passed. Representative Turner moved to adopt a rider on Criminal History Checks. The motion was adopted. Representative Cuellar moved to adopt a rider relating to