BILL ANALYSIS
By: Madla
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Currently, county treasurers must obtain 20 hours of continuing education each year. Ten of those hours must be obtained on the campus of an accredited institution of higher education. The remaining ten hours may be obtained at other venues; however, all hours must be certified by an accredited institution.
Each year, the county treasurers meet on the campus of Texas A&M University for educational training from the V.G. Young Institute of County Government. The V.G. Young Institute is a part of the Texas Cooperative Extension and The Texas A&M University System.
As proposed, S.B. 1106 allows county treasurers to obtain credit for 20 hours of education sponsored by an accredited institution, but provides that those training sessions are not required to be held on the campus of the institution. Scheduling these hours on a busy campus can be problematic. By allowing the hours to be obtained off-campus, host hotels could be utilized and the cost associated with the conference could be streamlined.
S.B. 1106 retains the current quality of education by requiring that education hours continue to be sponsored by an accredited institution.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Section 83.003(c), Local Government Code, as follows:
(c) Requires the introductory course required by Subsection (a) and the continuing education, rather than at least ten hours of continuing education, required by Subsection (b), to be sponsored or cosponsored by, rather than taken at, an accredited public institution of higher education. Deletes existing text relating to remaining required classroom hours.
SECTION 2. Effective date
EFFECTIVE DATE
Upon passage, or, if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2005.