Bill

HB 2

84(R) - 2015
House Appropriations
House Appropriations
Appropriations

Vote Recommendation

Neutral
  • Neutral
  • Neutral
  • Neutral
  • Neutral
  • Neutral

Author(s)

John Otto

Co-Author(s)

Trent Ashby
Jimmie Don Aycock
Drew Darby
James Keffer

Bill Caption

Relating to making supplemental appropriations and giving direction and adjustment authority regarding appropriations.

Fiscal Notes

A fiscal note dated March 23, 2015 anticipates a negative two-year net impact to General Revenue Related Funds of $280,128,031 from House Bill 2, Committee Report 1st House, Substituted.

Bill Analysis

5/25/15 update:

Amendments adopted on the House floor and a committee substitute would make several changes that are reflected in bold in our previous analysis below. The committee substitute would also allow for several other transfers of unspent money.

First chamber analysis:

House Bill 2 would make adjustments to appropriations from for the 2013-2014 fiscal biennium.

House Bill 2 would make appropriation reductions to the Public Finance Authority, Texas Education Agency, the Department of Transportation, the Health and Human Services Commission, and Debt Service Payments. (Additional appropriation reductions to the Department of Family and Protective Services, and the Higher Education Coordinating Board)

House Bill 2 would make supplemental appropriations to the Department of Family and Protective Services, for a foster care shortfall; the Health and Human Services Commission, for a Medicaid shortfall and for the Medicaid and CHIP providers fee and associated federal income tax; to the Teacher Retirement System, for a TRS Care shortfall; the Department of Criminal Justice, for a managed health care shortfall; The Texas Department of Insurance, for the Healthy Texas program; the Facilities Commission, for health and safety repairs at the Texas school for the deaf, and for critical operations, deferred maintenance, and health and safety maintenance at state-owned buildings; the Office of Court Administration, Texas Judicial Council, for the E-Filing system. (The Office of Court Administration, Texas Judicial Council, for the E-Filing system would not benefit from a supplemental appropriation) (Additional supplemental appropriations to the Facilities Commission for the Capitol Complex, and the Department of Motor Vehicles; the Health and Human Services Commission for the TANF program; the University of Texas at Austin for the center for economic geology; Lee College; Lamar State College; The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston; the judicial section in the comptroller's department relating to the Routh trial expenses; DPS for a border security shortfall; Texas Military Department for a border security shortfall; the Animal Health Commission for cattle tuberculosis and cattle fever tick quarantine; to the Parks & Wildlife Department for a border security shortfall and the San Jacinto lawsuit settlement.)

House Bill 2 would also authorize the re-appropriation of some unspent money for the same purpose as initially appropriated for or for other purposes. It would limit appropriations for recruit schools, appropriate possible money recovered from a Harris County lawsuit settlement, limit the transfer of some appropriations to the Department of Public Safety, and transfer appropriations to the Health and Human Services Commission.

Vote Recommendation Notes

5/25/15 update:

Changes made since we first reported on this bill are reflected in the analysis above. The fiscal impact to the State for the Senate committee substitute for HB 2 would be nearly $10 million higher than when we first reported on this bill ($289,804,696 through the biennium ending August 31, 2017). Some of the higher education funding that was added seems to be questionable as to whether it belongs in a supplemental appropriations bill. Ultimately, we continue to remain neutral on this bill.

The second chamber sponsor is Senator Jane Nelson.

First chamber recommendation:

House Bill 2 is a supplemental appropriations bill. The goal of such a bill is to cover any additional needs for funds that are part of the State's obligations and that were not budgeted because difficult to appropriately plan for (such as emergencies, disasters) or consisting in urgent needs, .

As such, House Bill 2 makes supplemental appropriations due to shortfalls in certain agencies. House Bill 2 also makes several appropriation reductions which partially compensate for the additional appropriations. As a result, we will remain neutral on House Bill 2.

Several amendments have been pre-filed. The only amendments we are taking a position on are those below. The amendment numbers represent the packet page number where the amendment is found in the pre-filed amendment packet.
Amendment # Author TPPA Position
3 Munoz Oppose
7 Munoz Oppose
10 Miller, Rick Oppose
11 Huberty Oppose