Anatomy of an Unfunded Mandate

An unfunded mandate is a requirement imposed upon counties without an appropriation by the state. The primary legislative objective of the State Association is the prevention of unfunded mandates. Legislators have an unending supply of “good ideas” without funding. Every session, we successfully defeat numerous bills with proposed unfunded mandates. Despite our efforts, some unfunded mandates are enacted. Sometimes, powerful interests overcome our efforts in a direct confrontation. More often, unfunded mandates are attached to other important bills by a particular legislator to avoid a clear vote on the mandate.
During the past legislative session, Gov. Perry declared that reform of Child Protective Services was an emergency item. Sen. Jane Nelson, chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, and Rep. Suzanna Hupp, chair of the House Human Services Committee, introduced legislation to substantially revise the services provided to abused and neglected children. Aware that such bills provide an opportunity to hide unfunded mandates in a large bill, we monitored these bills closely.
The leadership decided to utilize Senate Bill 6 by Sen. Nelson as the reform vehicle. The Senate considered it on March 2, 2005. After 19 floor amendments were adopted, it passed the Senate by a vote of 30-0. SB6 went to the House of Representatives with 227 pages, but no unfunded mandates.
In the House, the Human Services Committee produced a substitute containing 140 pages and no unfunded mandates. However, on the House floor, 52 floor amendments were added. Floor Amendment No. 3 by House sponsor Rep. Hupp requires counties to provide an attorney to represent indigent parents in CPS cases requesting temporary managing conservatorship of a child. To fund this mandate, the amendment included a new $15 fee on marriage licenses. While no estimate was provided on either the new costs or the revenue projected from the fee, arguably this was a funded mandate. The House version passed by a vote of 135-6 on April 20, 2005.
With substantial differences between the Senate version and the House version, the Senate refused the House version, and SB6 went to a conference committee of five senators and five representatives, chaired by Sen. Nelson and Rep. Hupp. In the conference committee with no public hearing, SB6 was revised to its final form and returned to the House and Senate at 257 pages. While the mandate to provide attorneys for indigent parents in CPS cases remained in the final version, the marriage license fee was omitted. Since conference committee reports cannot be amended, the Senate and the House adopted the final version on May 29, 2005, by votes of 31-0 and 124-20, respectively. Gov. Perry signed SB6 on June 6, 2005, with an effective date of Sept. 1, 2005.
The provision to mandate attorneys for indigent parents in CPS cases was never subjected to a public hearing. The deletion of the proposed marriage license fee was never discussed in a public meeting. This multimillion dollar unfunded mandate was hidden inside a major bill that had strong leadership support. This was not accidental.
The State Association has requested that Gov. Perry, Sen. Nelson and Rep. Hupp repeal this unfunded mandate. We have received no response at this time. As counties are forced to increase property taxes to fund this mandate, please let your taxpayers know how this occurred.
For more information, please call me at 1-800-733-0699.
Jim Allison, General Counsel CJCAT