BILL ANALYSIS |
C.S.H.B. 2493 |
By: Parker |
Investments & Financial Services |
Committee Report (Substituted) |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
According to interested parties, the State Securities Board has been unable to obtain adequate levels of funding necessary to maintain an appropriate salary structure and career ladder for its financial examiners and attorneys, resulting in several job vacancies that the agency has not been able to fill. The parties assert that the agency is competing for such professionals against both private industry and other regulators that have an effective means to retain such professionals. C.S.H.B. 2493 seeks to address this issue by making the State Securities Board a self-directed, semi-independent agency with some measure of budgetary autonomy and flexibility.
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CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.
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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.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 2493 amends The Securities Act, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes, to make the State Securities Board self-directed and semi-independent as specified by that act. The bill conditions the securities commissioner's implementation of any act of the 84th Legislature relating to the Board that is inconsistent with the agency being self-directed and semi-independent on authorization by the members of the Board. The bill subjects the State Securities Board to statutory provisions applicable to state agencies, including state purchasing requirements, interagency transfer voucher requirements, travel requirements, and prompt payment requirements, except as otherwise expressly provided.
C.S.H.B. 2493 requires the commissioner to submit an annual budget to the members of the Board using generally accepted accounting principles and requires the budget to be adopted and approved only by the members of the Board. The bill establishes that the State Securities Board is responsible for all direct and indirect costs of the agency's existence and operation and prohibits the agency from directly or indirectly causing the general revenue fund to incur any cost. The bill authorizes the Board, subject to any express statutory limitations, to set the amounts of the respective fees, penalties, charges, and revenues required or permitted by statute or rule as necessary to carry out the agency's functions and to fund its annual budget and removes caps on certain fees required to be established by the Board. The bill requires the commissioner to submit periodically to the members of the Board, as directed by the Board members, a report of the agency's receipts and expenditures and establishes that the agency's fiscal year begins on September 1 and ends on August 31.
C.S.H.B. 2493 requires all fees collected by and any funds appropriated to the agency to be deposited in interest-bearing deposit accounts in the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company to be used exclusively to pay costs incurred in the administration of The Securities Act and requires all other money collected by the commissioner or the Board and any other funds belonging to or under the control of the Board to be deposited into the general revenue fund. The bill requires the comptroller of public accounts to contract with the agency for the maintenance of the interest-bearing deposit accounts under terms comparable to a contract between a commercial banking institution and the institution's customers and prohibits the agency from holding funds in an account that is not under the comptroller's control. The bill requires a refund, if the commissioner or Board determines that all or part of a registration fee should be refunded, to be made by warrant on the state treasury from the fund into which the registration fee was deposited. The bill requires the agency to use the comptroller's uniform statewide accounting system to make all payments except direct payments from the agency's account to the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company.
C.S.H.B. 2493 requires the commissioner to keep financial and statistical information as necessary to disclose completely and accurately the financial condition and operations of the agency. The bill requires the commissioner, before the beginning of each regular session of the legislature, to submit to the legislature and governor a report describing all agency activities in the previous biennium and sets out the required report elements. The bill requires the commissioner, not later than November 1 of each year, to submit to the governor, the committee of each house of the legislature with jurisdiction over appropriations, and the Legislative Budget Board a report containing specified information regarding Board employee salaries and per diem and travel expenses of Board employees and Board members, operational planning and budget data, and a detailed account of agency expenditures and revenues in the preceding 12 months.
C.S.H.B. 2493 authorizes the commissioner, in order to carry out and promote the objectives of The Securities Act, to enter into contracts and do all other acts incidental to those contracts that are necessary for the administration of the agency's affairs and attainment of its purposes. The bill prohibits any agency indebtedness, liability, or obligation incurred in contracting from creating a debt or other liability of this state or another entity other than the agency or from creating any personal liability on the part of Board members or Board employees.
C.S.H.B. 2493 authorizes the commissioner, on behalf of the agency, to acquire by purchase, lease, gift, or any other manner provided by law and to maintain, use, and operate any real, personal, or mixed property, or any interest in property, necessary or convenient to the exercise of the agency's powers, rights, privileges, or functions and to sell or otherwise dispose of any such property or property interest that the commissioner determines is not necessary or convenient to the exercise of those powers, rights, privileges, or functions. The bill authorizes the agency to construct, extend, improve, maintain, and reconstruct, or cause to construct, extend, improve, maintain, and reconstruct, and use and operate all facilities necessary or convenient to the exercise of its powers, rights, privileges, or functions. The bill authorizes the agency to borrow money, as may be authorized from time to time by an affirmative vote of a three-fifths majority of the Board, for a maximum period of five years if necessary or convenient to the exercise of agency powers, rights, privileges, or functions.
C.S.H.B. 2493 makes the agency, if the State Securities Board no longer has status as a self-directed, semi-independent agency under The Securities Act for any reason, liable for any expenses or debts it incurs during the time it had such status, including liability for any lease entered into by the agency; establishes that the state is not liable for any such expense or debt and prohibits money from the general revenue fund from being used to repay the expense or debt; and requires ownership of any property or other asset acquired by the agency during the time it had such status, including unexpended fees in a deposit account in the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company, to be transferred to the state.
C.S.H.B. 2493 makes the State Securities Board a governmental body for the purposes of state public information law and open meetings law and a state agency for purposes of the Administrative Procedure Act and statutory provisions relating to state licenses and permits. The bill establishes that Board employees are members of the Employees Retirement System of Texas and that the Board's transition to independent status has no effect on their membership or any benefits under that system.
C.S.H.B. 2493 prohibits the commissioner from accepting a gift, grant, or donation on the agency's behalf from a party to an enforcement action or to pursue a specific investigation or enforcement action and requires the commissioner to report each gift, grant, or donation that the agency receives as a separate item in the commissioner's required biennial report and to include with the report a statement indicating the purpose for which each gift, grant, or donation was donated and used.
C.S.H.B. 2493 removes the entitlement of each Board member to a per diem as set by legislative appropriation for each day that the member engages in Board business and instead entitles each such member to reimbursement for travel expenses incurred for each day that the member engages in such business. The bill requires the Board to determine the commissioner's salary and requires the commissioner to determine staffing levels and salaries.
C.S.H.B. 2493 requires the Sunset Advisory Commission to examine the State Securities Board's performance as a self-directed, semi-independent agency as part of the commission's periodic review of the agency under the Texas Sunset Act, requires the agency to pay the cost incurred by the commission in performing that review, requires the commission to determine the cost and to submit to the agency a statement detailing the cost, and requires the agency to promptly pay the amount after receiving such statement.
C.S.H.B. 2493 authorizes appropriations made by an Act of the 84th Legislature, Regular Session, 2015, to be spent by the State Securities Board as the securities commissioner directs, subject to the bill's provisions relating to budget, revenues, and expenses. The bill requires the board to repay to the general revenue fund the appropriations made to the agency and to the board for the 2016 and 2017 state fiscal years, respectively, not later than the last day of each of those fiscal years and as funds become available.
C.S.H.B. 2493 prohibits the transfer of the State Securities Board to self-directed and semi-independent status or the expiration of such status from canceling, suspending, or preventing any debt owed to or by the State Securities Board; any fine, tax, penalty, or obligation of any party; any contract or other obligation of any party; or any action taken by the Board, commissioner, or board employees in the administration or enforcement of the agency's duties.
C.S.H.B. 2493 establishes that the State Securities Board continues to have and exercise the powers and duties allocated to it in its enabling legislation, except as specifically amended by the bill's provisions. The bill transfers title to or ownership of all supplies, materials, records, equipment, books, papers, and furniture used by the State Securities Board to the State Securities Board in fee simple and specifies that the bill's provisions do not affect any property owned by the State Securities Board on or before the bill's effective date. The bill requires the State Securities Board, beginning September 1, 2015, to pay rent to the state in a reasonable amount to be determined by the Texas Facilities Commission for its use and occupancy of state-owned office space.
C.S.H.B. 2493 repeals the following provisions of The Securities Act (Article 581-1 et seq., Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes) to make conforming changes: · Subsections J and N, Section 2 · Subsections C and D, Section 35 · Section 36
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EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2015.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 2493 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and formatted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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