Texas County Progress

The Official Publication of the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas

Interim Senate Committee Charges

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Interim Senate Committee Charges

After each legislative session, the standing committees are assigned issues to study during the interim. The committees will examine these issues, conduct public hearings, and prepare a report with legislative recommendations for the next session. The lieutenant governor assigns issues to the Senate committees, and the Speaker assigns issues to the House committees. Assignments to House committees have not been made. Below are some county-related issues assigned to Senate committees.

Business and Commerce Committee

  • Information Technology: Review the state’s major information technology infrastructure. Examine cybersecurity preparedness and reporting requirements for state and local governments and political subdivisions. Identify opportunities for expanded partnership and coordination between state and local officials. Compare state and local government prevention and response efforts with those of private businesses facing similar threats. Make recommendations for cost-effective ways to strengthen and protect consumer data and personal information against privacy breaches and ransomware threats.
  • Health Care Costs: Study the cost of health care in Texas. Make recommendations to increase access to affordable quality health care. Explore potential opportunities and recommend best practices to continue to curb rising health care costs. Study and report on ways to increase consumer health care options, provide flexibility in the market, and decrease the uninsured rate in Texas, including 1115 and 1332 waivers.

Finance Committee

  • Natural Disaster Funding: Review federal, state, and local eligibility and receipt of disaster funds from Community Development Block Grants – Disaster Relief and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Identify any barriers to the effective utilization of those funds and recommend any changes to statutes, rules, or practices to promote the efficient deployment of those funds and expedite recovery by affected citizens, businesses, and communities.
  • Monitoring: Monitor the implementation of legislation addressed by the Senate Committee on Finance passed by the 86th Legislature, as well as relevant agencies and programs under the committee’s jurisdiction. Specifically, make recommendations for any legislation needed to improve, enhance, or complete implementation of the following:
    • Contingent upon voter approval, study the implementation of House Bill 492 and House Joint Resolution 34, relating to a temporary exemption from ad valorem taxation of a portion of the appraised value of certain property damaged by a disaster.

Health and Human Services Committee

  • Health Care Costs: Examine the state health and human services finance system including, but not limited to, the following programs and methods of finance: Local Provider Participation Funds, the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment Program, Medicaid 1115 waivers and Section 1332 State Innovation waivers, Pay for Quality Programs, the Quality Incentive Payment Program, and other state and local funding used to finance health care systems in Texas. Identify ways to streamline functions and reduce unnecessarily burdensome and costly requirements in the Texas Medicaid program. Provide recommendations to ensure the sustainability of the state’s health and human services system and judicious use of taxpayer dollars.
  • Rural Health: Examine and determine ways to improve health care delivery in rural and medically underserved areas of the state. Determine whether additional funding provided during the 86th Legislative Session has helped to ensure more accessible and quality health care in rural areas.

Intergovernmental Relations Committee

  • Infrastructure Resiliency: Examine the authority special purpose districts have to generate natural disaster resilient infrastructure. Determine ways state government can work with special purpose districts to mitigate future flooding and promote more resilient infrastructure. Make recommendations on how special purpose districts may use their statutory authority to assist in mitigating damage from future natural disasters.
  • Monitoring: Monitor the implementation of legislation addressed by the Senate Committee on Intergovernmental Relations passed by the 86th Legislature, as well as relevant agencies and programs under the committee’s jurisdiction. Specifically, make recommendations for any legislation needed to improve, enhance, or complete implementation of the following:
    • Senate Bill 1303, relating to landowner rights in a city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction;
    • Senate Bill 1474, relating to private activity bonds; and
    • House Bill 2330, relating to simplifying disaster assistance.

Property Tax Committee

  • Monitoring: Monitor the implementation of the following legislation addressed by the Senate Committee on Property Tax passed by the 86th Legislature. Specifically, make recommendations for any legislation needed to improve, enhance, or complete implementation of the following:
    • Senate Bill 2, relating to ad valorem taxation.

State Affairs Committee

  • Elections: Study the integrity and security of voter registration rolls, voting machines, and voter qualification procedures to reduce election fraud in Texas. Specifically, study and make recommendations to: 1) ensure counties are accurately verifying voter eligibility after voter registration; 2) improve training requirements for mail-in ballot signature verification committees; 3) ensure every voter has access to a polling station, particularly in counties that have adopted countywide polling; 4) allow the voter registrar, county clerk, and secretary of state to suspend an unqualified voter’s registration or remove an ineligible voter from a list of registered voters; and 5) ensure compliance with laws that prohibit school trustees and employees from improperly using public funds to advocate for or against any candidate, measure, or political party.
  • Taxpayer Lobbying: Study how governmental entities use public funds for political lobbying purposes. Examine what types of governmental entities use public funds for lobbying purposes. Make recommendations to protect taxpayers from paying for lobbyists who may not represent the taxpayers’ interests.
  • Second Amendment: Examine Second Amendment legislation passed since the 84th Legislative Session including open carry, campus carry, and lowering the license to carry fee. Determine the impact these laws have made on furthering and protecting Second Amendment rights. Make recommendations that may further protect and enhance Texans’ Second Amendment right to bear arms.

Transportation Committee

  • Monitoring: Monitor the implementation of legislation addressed by the Senate Committee on Transportation passed by the 86th Legislature, as well as relevant agencies and programs under the committee’s jurisdiction. Specifically, make recommendations for any legislation needed to improve, enhance, or complete implementation of the following:
    • The Legislature’s new funding for the driver’s license program as funded in the General Appropriations Act;
    • The Legislature’s funding for grants to counties to be used for repair of county roads as funded in the General Appropriations Act;
    • B. 198, relating to payment for the use of a highway toll project;
    • B. 616, as it relates to the analysis of the opportunities and challenges of transferring the driver’s license program to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles;
    • B. 1915, relating to the board of pilot commissioners for Harris County ports; and
    • S.B. 2223, as it relates to two-way directional routes.

Pretrial Intervention Program Fund

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     The Texas Attorney General has provided guidance on the proper use of the pretrial intervention program fund. Attorney General Opinion KP-0263 (2019) determined that the Commissioners Court must “ultimately decide how to expend the pretrial intervention program special fund.”

      Article 102.0121 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that a prosecutor may “collect a fee in an amount not to exceed $500 to be used to reimburse a county for expenses, including expenses of the district attorney’s, criminal district attorney’s, or county attorney’s office related to a defendant’s participation in a pretrial intervention program offered in that county.” Fees are deposited in the county treasury to be used solely to administer the pretrial intervention program. “An expenditure from the fund may be made only in accordance with a budget approved by the Commissioners Court.” 

Jim Allison
Association General Counsel, Jim Allison

     The Attorney General noted that “the time and labor of the attorneys and staff of the prosecutor’s office likely represent a substantial component of the county resources expended to administer a pretrial intervention program. Thus, a court would likely conclude that compensation of the employees who administer the program is a use of the pretrial intervention fund ‘to administer the pretrial intervention program.’ Accordingly, article 102.0121 authorizes the Commissioners Court to use the pretrial intervention fund for an employee’s salary, salary supplement, or benefit only to the extent such use of the fund is solely for the administration of the program.” 

     In summary, the Commissioners Court, not the prosecuting attorney, ultimately determines the authorized uses of the county pretrial intervention fund. The Commissioners Court may use the fund for the employee’s salary, salary supplements, or a benefit only to the extent the use of the fund is solely for the administration of the program. 

     For additional information, please call me at 1-800-733-0699.

Mandated Mental Health Jail Inmate Interviews and Reports

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For several years, the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas has supported legislative proposals to improve mental health programs. There have been some improvements in state funding. In 2010, Texas ranked 50th among the states in mental health funding; by 2017, we had improved to 40th. Nevertheless, county jails continue to hold more mentally ill persons than all of the state facilities combined, and the backlog of jail inmates awaiting admission to a state facility continues to increase.

Instead of providing sufficient capacity at state facilities to meet this need, the legislature has resorted to mandates upon counties to provide treatment to these citizens. Present law already requires that the county jail file notice to the local magistrate of any reasonabe cause to believe that an inmate has a mental illness. If the magistrate determines reasonable cause, an order is issued to the local mental health authority (LMHA) to conduct an assessment to the magistrate within 96 hours. The county reimburses the LMHA for transport expenses if the inmate is transported for the assessment by the LMHA.

Effective Sept. 1, 2019, House Bill 601 by Rep. Four Price will add new requirements and county expenditures to this procedure. Under this legislation, the LMHA or other mental health provider must conduct an interview with the inmate, either in person in the jail, by telephone, or through a telemedicine service. This legislation requires that the county pay the LMHA or other mental health provider for the interview and report to the magistrate.

To meet this new mandated responsibility, the Commissioners Court has three options: 1) obtain a contract with the LMHA or other mental health provider to provide this service for a negotiated fee; 2) adopt a fee schedule after a public hearing to establish the payment rate; or 3) do nothing and let the judge with jurisdiction over the offense determine the amount of reimbursement. Note that fee schedule amounts may be appealed to the judge.

If your county is presently contracting with the LMHA or other mental health provider, the county may amend its contract to include these services into that agreement. This will provide some budgetary control over the potential cost of this mandate.

     For additional information, please call me at 1-800-733-0699.

 

 

By Jim Allison
General Counsel

County Energy Transportation Reinvestment Zones Checklist (S.B. 1747)

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During the Regular Session of the 83rd Texas Legislature, H.B. 1025 appropriated $225 million for county road repair for damages from oil and gas activity.  S.B. 1747 creates the grant process to distribute funds to counties through the Texas Department of Transportation, which was scheduled to consider these rules in October or November.

A county must establish a designated County Energy Transportation Reinvestment Zone (CETRZ) under section 222.1071 of the Texas Transportation Code to be eligible for a grant, pursuant to Chapter 256 of the Texas Transportation Code, for one or more transportation infrastructure projects (TIPs) from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).  All projects funded by a grant must be located within a CETRZ.  A county may establish more than one CETRZ.  Practical suggestion:  Before establishing a CETRZ, evaluate the county roads and determine those most likely to benefit from a grant project; provide this information to the CETRZ advisory board.

Each CETRZ must be composed of a contiguous geographic area.  Practical suggestion:  The Central Appraisal District may provide assistance in preparing the description of the CETRZ area.

The following steps are required to establish a CETRZ:

  1. 7 days prior to Commissioners Court’s public hearing on creation of CETRZ, publish notice of public hearing in general circulation newspaper in county.
  2. 30 days prior to designating CETRZ, Commissioners Court holds public hearing on creation of CETRZ and its benefits to county and property in proposed CETRZ, where interested persons may speak for or against proposed CETRZ.
  3. Commissioners Court, after proper notice, has a hearing and enters order
    – First determining that an area is affected by oil and gas activities and would benefit from funding under Ch. 256;
    – Then designating “contiguous” area within county’s jurisdiction to be CETRZ to promote one or more TIPs;
    – Sufficiently describing boundaries of CETRZ to reasonably identify territory in CERTZ;
    – Stating CERTZ is effective immediately upon adoption of order;
    – Stating base year is either year of adoption of order or some year in future; and
    – Establishing ad valorem tax increment account for CETRZ or providing for establishment of joint ad valorem tax increment account, if applicable.
    – If two or more counties are designating CERTZ for TIPs, finding that:
    – TIPs benefit property and residents in CERTZ;
    – Creation of CERTZ serves public purpose of county; and
    – Detailing which county is responsible for each TIP.
    – Dedicating all of “captured appraised value of real property” in CETRZ to TIPs;
    – Creating and stating terms and duties of Advisory Board for CETRZ for establishment, administration and expenditures of CETRZ, whose members County Judge appoints and Commissioners Court approves, and are comprised of:
    – Up to three oil and gas company representatives performing activities in county and being local taxpayers; and
    – two public members.
    – Determining tax increment for CETRZ (which is the same as a Transportation Reinvestment Zone):
    – the amount of county ad valorem taxes levied and collected for that year on the “captured appraised value of real property” taxable by the county and located in an CETRZ;
    – the “captured appraised value of real property” taxable by a county for a year is the total appraised value of all real property taxable by the county and located in a CETRZ for that year less the   tax increment base of the county; and
    – the “tax increment base of a county” is the total appraised value of all real property taxable by the county and located in a CETRZ for the year in which the zone was designated.
    – Stating CETRZ terminates on Dec. 31 of 10th year after designation of CETRZ, unless Commissioners Court enters order extending CETRZ;
    – Stating Commissioners Court’s extension, if any, of CETRZ shall be no more than five years; and
    – Stating it shall comply with all applicable laws under Chapter 222 of Texas Transportation Code.

    Practical reminder:  While the revenue in the tax increment fund is excluded from the calculation of the effective tax rate and the rollback rate, creating a CETRZ will commit all of the increased tax revenue from property in the CETRZ to transportation infrastructure projects (road and bridge budget) for 10 years.

 

The county’s grant application to TxDOT will require:

  1. Road condition report under section 251.018 of Texas Transportation Code, including the new statutory requirement stating the primary cause, if reasonably ascertained, of degradation of road, culvert or bridge; Practical suggestion:  Prepare a revised report containing this new information (likely damage from overweight oil and gas truck traffic).
  2. Copy of Order Establishing CETRZ;
  3. Plan containing:
    – List of TIPs to be funded by grant;
    – Description of scope of TIPs to be funded by grant;
    – Providing for matching funds (20 percent of grant or 10 percent if TxDOT determines county is economically disadvantaged);
    – Meeting any other requirements of TxDOT.

County’s second or subsequent grant application must:

  1. Provide the Road Condition Report for the previous year;
  2. Certify all previous grants spent in accordance with Plan; and
  3. Provide accounting of how previous grants spent, including administrative costs.

Practical suggestion:  While awaiting application forms and projected amount of grant eligibility for your county, begin review of county roads for possible projects and potential boundaries of CETRZ.  Do not expend county funds until final grant award is received.

For more information, please call me at 1-800-733-0699.

General Counsel’s Report – September 2013

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House Bill 1513 by Rep. Tryon Lewis provides an increase in the maximum fees that may be assessed by district and county clerks for records archives and by county clerks for records management and preservation.  Although the legislation is effective on Sept. 1, 2013, the increases cannot be implemented until Jan. 1, 2014, due to the provisions of Section 51.607, Government Code, as amended by Senate Bill 390.

The District Court Clerk Records Archive Fee may be increased from $5 to $10 upon approval by the Commissioners Court as part of the annual budget.  See Sections 51.305, 51.317, 101.0611, Government Code.  These funds must be utilized for records archives, pursuant to an annual plan submitted by the district clerk and approved by the Commissioners Court, after notice and hearing.

The County Clerk Records Archive Fee may be increased from $5 to $10 upon approval by the Commissioners Court as part of the annual budget.  See Sections 118.011(f) and 118.025, Local Government Code.  These funds must be utilized for records archives, pursuant to an annual plan submitted by the county clerk and approved by the Commissioners Court, after notice and hearing.

The County Clerk Records Management and Preservation Fee may be increased from $5 to $10.  This fee is set by the county clerk.  See Sections 118.011(b) and 118.0216, Local Government Code.  These funds may only be expended for records management and preservation purposes, as proposed by the county clerk and approved by Commissioners Court.

All of these increases in the maximum fees will revert to $5 on Sept. 1, 2019, unless extended by the legislature.  The District Clerk Records Management and Preservation Fee remains at a maximum of $10.  See Sections 101.0611(7) and Section 51.317, Government Code.

To implement these increases include the following language in the county budget:

“On January 1, 2014, the County Clerk and District Clerk Records Archive Fees shall be increased from $5 to $10 each.”

For more information, please call me at 1-800-733-0699 or email j.allison@allison-bass.com.

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