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11 Document(s) [ Subject: State government debt ]

Committee:	Senate Finance
Title:	Interim Report
Subjects:	Franchise taxes | Information Resources, Texas Department of | Local government debt | Medical education | Mental health services | Pension liabilities | Property taxes | Sales taxes | State budgets | State government debt | State purchasing | Tax and expenditure limits | Tax holidays |
Library Call Number:	L1836.84 F49
Session:	84th R.S. (2015)
Online version:	View report [86 pages]
Charges:	This report should address the charges below.
1.	Property Tax Process: Study the property tax process, including the appraisal system, and recommend ways to promote transparency, simplicity, and accountability by all taxing entities. (Charge to a select subcommittee on Property Tax Reform and Relief)
2.	Reduce Tax Burden: Examine and develop options to further reduce the tax burden on property owners. (Charge to a select subcommittee on Property Tax Reform and Relief)
3.	Franchise Tax: Study the benefits, including the dynamic effects, of continuing to phase out the franchise tax. Consider alternate approaches to funding the Property Tax Relief Fund.
4.	Spending Limit: Examine options and make recommendations for strengthening restriction on appropriations established in Article VIII Section 22 of the state constitution, including related procedures defined in statute. Consider options for ensuring available revenues above spending limit are reserved for tax relief.
5.	Fiscal Responsibility: Review the budgeting format of other states, such as whether they use strategy-based budgeting, program-based budgeting, or some other approach and discuss the level of transparency with each approach. Review and make recommendations to reduce state debt liabilities, including state pension liability. Consider how to incentivize state agencies, boards, and commissions to identify and realize savings to taxpayers.
6.	Coordinating Behavioral Health Services and Expenditures: Monitor the state's progress in coordinating behavioral health services and expenditures across state government, pursuant to Article IX Sec. 10.04. Identify ways state agencies that provide mental health services are collaborating and taking steps to eliminate redundancy, create efficiency, utilize best practices, ensure optimal service delivery, and demonstrate expenditures are coordinated and in furtherance of a behavioral health statewide strategic plan. Identify barriers that prevent the coordination of behavioral health services. Make recommendations to maximize use of state funding for mental health.
7.	Sales Tax Holiday: Review the state's current sales tax holiday structure and determine its economic benefit to the state. Evaluate and consider the merits of any potential expansion of the tax holiday either in the application of the sales tax exemption or the timing of the holiday.
8.	Monitoring Charge: Monitor the implementation of legislation addressed by the Senate Finance Committee during the 84th R.S. and make recommendations for any legislation needed to improve, enhance, and/or complete implementation. Specifically, monitor the following: 1) Tax relief provided to property owners; 2) The gradual phase out of the franchise tax; 3) Support for and the enhancement of graduate medical education; 4) Efforts of the Department of Information Resources (DIR) to modernize the technology of state agencies; 5) The implementation of required changes to state agency contracting, purchasing, and accounting procedures; and 6) Monitor the implementation of Health and Human Services Commission Rider 50.
Committee:	Senate Transportation
Title:	Interim Report
Subjects:	Driver Responsibility Program | Eminent domain | Highway finance | Panama Canal | Ports | Regional mobility authorities | Semi-trailer trucks | State government debt | Sunset review process | Texas Mobility Fund | Toll roads | Transportation planning | Transportation, Texas Department of | Truck inspection stations | Trucking | Vehicle safety inspections |
Library Call Number:	L1836.84 T685
Session:	84th R.S. (2015)
Online version:	View report [61 pages]
Charges:	This report should address the charges below.
1.	TxDOT Funding: Monitor any new and anticipated revenue appropriated to the Texas Department of Transportation and make recommendations that address project prioritization and selection, effectiveness of staffing levels and project delivery methods.
2.	Vehicle Inspection System: Evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the state's Vehicle Inspection Program. Make recommendations on how to compress or otherwise reduce the number of required inspections.
3.	Regional Mobility Authorities: Review State Highway Fund grants and loans to Regional Mobility Authorities (RMA) and make recommendations if additional oversight procedures are needed to ensure the RMA’s expenditures are a valid and accountable use of State Highway Funds.
4.	Panama Canal: Study the demand placed on the state’s ports, roadways and railways resulting from the Panama Canal expansion and make recommendations to ensure transportation infrastructure is adequate to accommodate increases in imports and exports.
5.	Driver Responsibility Program: Evaluate the necessity of the Driver Responsibility Program and make recommendations for alternative methods of achieving the programs objectives.
6.	Oversize/Overweight Vehicle Regulations, Penalties and Fines: Review current state and federal regulations, penalties and fines related to oversize and overweight vehicles and make recommendations to minimize impacts on the state's roadways and bridges.
7.	Monitoring Charge: Monitor the implementation of legislation addressed by the Senate Committee on Transportation during the 84th R.S. and make recommendations for any legislation needed to improve, enhance, and/or complete implementation. Specifically, monitor the following: 1) Progress of the Texas Department of Transportation's efforts to propose a plan to eliminate toll roads; 2) Removing eminent domain authority from private toll corporations; 3) Ending the issuing of any new debt from the Texas Mobility Fund (TMF) and prohibiting future use of the TMF on toll projects; and 4) The Sunset Advisory Commission's review of the Texas Department of Transportation.
Committee:	Senate Finance
Title:	Interim Report
Library Catalog Title:	Interim report
Subjects:	Aging and Disability Services, Texas Department of | Criminal Justice, Texas Department of | Employees Retirement System of Texas | Employers | Financial investments | Frew lawsuits | Health and Human Services Commission, Texas | Health insurance | Health insurance premium subsidies | Higher Education Coordinating Board, Texas | Highway finance | Investment of public funds | Iran | Medicaid | Medical reimbursements | Parks and Wildlife, Texas Department of | Permanent School Fund | Permanent University Fund | State agency budgets | State government debt | State Health Services, Texas Department of | State supported living centers | Sudan | Tax incentives | Teacher Retirement System of Texas | Texas Southern University | Transportation, Texas Department of | Youth Commission, Texas |
Library Call Number:	L1836.80 F49
Session:	80th R.S. (2007)
Online version:	View report [46 pages  File size: 698 kb]
Charges:	This report should address the charges below.
1.	Provide effective budget oversight of state agencies to ensure that monies appropriated are spent wisely. Particular areas of focus will include the Texas Department of Transportation, Department of State Health Services coordination of Mental Health Services, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department revitalization of State Parks, Health and Human Services Commission management of Frew settlement agreement and waiting list slots, Department of Aging and Disability Services improvement of State Schools, Texas Department of Criminal Justice roll out of treatment programs and review of the salary career ladder for employees for retention purposes, Texas Youth Commission achievement of reform, Texas Southern University rehabilitation, Higher Education Coordinating Board implementation of incentive programs and the creation of the Texas Cancer Research and Prevention Institute.
2.	Evaluate the effectiveness of existing state tax incentives that encourage employers to provide health coverage to their employees, including tax incentives under the revised state business tax, and make recommendations for additional deductions or credits that increase the number of employees covered by health care insurance.
3.	Study the feasibility and the advisability of establishing an investment policy that is consistent across all state trust funds, including the trust funds of the Employees Retirement System, the Teachers Retirement System, the Permanent University Fund, and the Permanent School Fund. Identify best investment policies for state trust funds. Examine recent portfolio diversification strategies and the effect they have on long-term fund performance. The recommendations should consider what is an acceptable rate of return, an acceptable degree of risk, the appropriateness of certain investments. (Joint charge with Senate State Affairs Committee)
4.	Review Medicaid provider reimbursement rate methodologies, including the impact of factors such as infrastructure concerns, federal minimum wage changes, and cost reports. Study the impact on access to care, quality of care, and value, and make recommendations for legislative changes, taking into account rate increases contained in the current budget. (Joint charge with Senate Health and Human Services Committee)
5.	Study and review state and local options for expanding transportation funding and explore options to reduce diversions of Fund 6 revenue. (Joint charge with Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security)
6.	Study and make recommendations relating to whether the Texas Department of Transportation is in compliance with Transportation Code §201.109, Revenue Enhancement, and whether the Texas Department of Transportation is using the funding sources provided by the Legislature, including, but not limited to, General Obligation, Fund 6 and Mobility Fund bonds, to build new roads. (Joint charge with Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security)
7.	Monitor and provide a brief update on the implementation of legislation addressed by the Finance Committee, 80th R.S., and make recommendations for any legislation needed to improve or enhance and complete implementation. SB 247, 80th R.S., relating to Sudan divestment, and make recommendations about whether to include Iran in the divestment strategy; SB1332, 80th R.S., to help improve the state's debt management and oversight, including a more comprehensive review of state debt and improved communication between entities and oversight of state bond issuance; SB 10, 80th R.S., and the Frew settlement to ensure that the initiatives carried out by the Health and Human Services Commission affect meaningful improvement in access to quality care in the Texas Medicaid program; and HB 3732, 80th R.S., relating to ultra-clean coal technologies, and determine the amount of property tax removed from the tax rolls, as well as the corresponding impact on school finance. Identify any changes needed to strengthen the program and ensure its success.
Committee:	Senate Intergovernmental Relations
Title:	Interim Report
Library Catalog Title:	Interim report to the 81st Texas Legislature
Subjects:	Affordable housing | Bootstrap Self-Help Housing Program | Contracts for deed | Emergency services districts | Homeownership | Housing and Community Affairs, Texas Department of | Municipal utility districts | Special taxing districts | State government debt | Substandard housing | Suburban areas | Title insurance | University of Texas System | Urban areas | Urban sprawl |
Library Call Number:	L1836.80 L786
Session:	80th R.S. (2007)
Online version:	View report [394 pages]
Charges:	This report should address the charges below.
1.	Study and make recommendations on Texas’ housing programs, with particular focus upon: Increasing the effectiveness of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs' (TDHCA) Housing Tax Credit (HTC) Program. Examine potential rule changes to the HTC Program's Qualified Allocation Plan to give owners of mixed-income projects seeking low-income housing credits the same opportunity to receive credits that low-income projects have, thus helping cities address the problem of a lack of adequate quality affordable housing while enhancing central city revitalization; Significantly improving homeownership rates by evaluating Texas’ efforts to address the growing housing need. Efforts should include assessment of the range of tools which may be used to help low-income Texans develop equity through homeownership. Tools should be evaluated in terms of their economic development impact, leverage of federal and private funds, and how they are utilized in other states; Evaluating the progress of affordable housing programs within the state and developing recommendations to boost the capacity of non-profits to build increased affordable housing developments; Monitor the expansion of the Housing Trust Fund by the 80th Legislature; review the funds of other states to develop recommendations for a permanent funding source for the Texas Housing Trust Fund; Promote home-ownership through self-help initiatives such as the Texas Bootstrap Loan Program; Assessing the existing use of state and federal housing funds in relation to statutory and budgetary mandates; and Examining the incidence of health and safety violations and concerns for general habitability among multi-family and single-family rental properties across the state, including properties financed or supported by the state. Consider the adequacy of the existing authority conferred by the state upon local governments to address violations of habitability standards. Make recommendations for extension of local capacity for redress.
2.	Review title insurance requirements relating to the purchase of a home under an installment contract or contract for a deed. Study title insurance requirements and costs in Texas as compared to other states.
3.	Study the provision of fire and emergency medical services through Emergency Service Districts (ESDs) and make recommendations concerning the provision of those services, and for reconciling potential conflicts due to overlapping taxing jurisdictions in the areas of the state served by ESDs.
4.	Review the process for the creation of Municipal Utility Districts (MUDs) and other special districts, and investigate whether the creation of a standard municipal utility district statute is feasible, and whether it would enable the legislature to more efficiently evaluate proposed districts during the legislative session.
5.	Study the shifting geographic nature of low-income neighborhoods in urban and suburban areas, focusing on factors that contribute to economic displacement of low income homeowners and factors that contribute to beneficial redevelopment of distressed neighborhoods.
6.	Monitor the implementation of legislation addressed by the Intergovernmental Relations Committee, 80th R.S., and make recommendations for any legislation needed to improve, enhance, and/or complete implementation. Specifically, report on changes made by SB 968, 80th R.S., relating to financing tools for certain obligations for public improvements and for certain obligations of The University of Texas System and evaluate the need for further changes to Chapter 1371 Texas Government Code.
Committee:	Senate Finance
Title:	Interim Report - General Budget and Tax Issues
Library Catalog Title:	Interim report of the Senate Finance Committee : recommendations to the 79th Legislature.
Subjects:	Employees Retirement System of Texas | Fire Fighter's Pension Commissioner | Judicial Retirement System of Texas | Public retirement systems | Rainy Day Fund | State budget certification | State budgets | State government debt | Tax revenue | Teacher Retirement System of Texas |
Library Call Number:	L1836.78 F49 v. 1
Session:	78th R.S. (2003)
Online version:	View report [355 pages  File size: 15,793 kb]
Charges:	This report should address the charges below.
1.	General Budget Oversight. Monitor state agency implementation of HB 1, 78th R.S., by reviewing key strategies, programs, and rider provisions.
2.	Revenue Oversight. Monitor and track the Texas' key revenue sources. Develop recommendations to keep the Legislature apprised of key revenue source activity throughout the duration of this and future fiscal biennia.
3.	General Budget and Tax Issues Rainy Day Fund. Track the history of appropriations out of and deposits of revenue into the Texas' rainy day fund. Monitor FY 2004-2005 deposits of revenue to the fund. As needed, make recommendations on how to improve revenue sources and the manner in which the fund can be spent. Pension Fund Review. Report on the current condition of the state's pension systems, including an analysis of unfunded liabilities. Make recommendations, as necessary, to ensure Texas meets its financial obligations in the future. Issuance of State Bonds. Review the role of the Public Finance Authority and the Bond Review Board in the issuance of state bonds, and make recommendations, as necessary, for improvements. Budget Certification. Study the budget certification process. Make recommendations on how to improve the process of certifying the state budget by the Comptroller of Public Accounts. General Appropriations Act Bill Pattern Review. Review effectiveness of current and past bill patterns, and make recommendations, as necessary, for improvements.
Committee:	House General Investigating
Title:	Interim Report
Library Catalog Title:	Debt Primer: the interim report of the General Investigating Committee
Subjects:	State government debt |
Library Call Number:	L1836.73 in8 73
Session:	73rd R.S. (1993)
Online version:	View report [20 pages  File size: 557 kb]
Charge:	This report should address the charge below.
1.	Address the issue of what true costs to state and local government are imposed by the ever-increasing amount of public debt.
Committee:	House State Affairs
Title:	Interim report
Library Catalog Title:	Final report on interim charges / House Committee on State Affairs, 68th Legislature.
Subjects:	Biofuels | Duck hunting | Hunting | Lead contamination | Property tax exemptions | Records management | Rights of way | State agencies | State agency performance measures | State buildings | State government debt | Telephone service | Vehicle safety inspections | Wine and wine industry |
Library Call Number:	L1836.68 st29
Session:	68th R.S. (1983)
Online version:	View report [128 pages  File size: 3,653 kb]
Charges:	This report should address the charges below.
1.	To monitor all activities and have budget oversight responsibilities for those agencies, boards and commissions as listed in Rule 3, Section 29.
2.	To study telecommunications needs for the state and its agency network in cooperation with other special legislative and statutory committees.
3.	To study the feasibility of combining branch offices of legislators and/or state agencies in cities and towns.
4.	To study the elimination of the state vehicle inspection requirements.
5.	To study the quality control requirements for gas purchased at the gas pump, specifically gasohol.
6.	To study the feasibility of leasing excess rights of way for additional state income.
7.	In cooperation with the House Committee on Liquor Regulations, study wine production and associated grape cultivation in Texas.
8.	To examine the issuance of general obligation bonds to finance major projects in Texas.
9.	To study the management practices of state agencies.
10.	To study the merits of eliminating the use of legal-size forms and other papers in state government, and additionally conduct a comprehensive study of the management of all state records and historical documents within the committee's jurisdiction.
11.	To study enforcement of the prohibition on aliens and corporations receiving open-space valuation for agricultural land taxation.
12.	In cooperation with the House Committee on Environmental Affairs, study the relevance of alternative forms of ammunition for use in the hunting of waterfowl in Texas; consider the comparative advantages and disadvantages of steel and lead shot, being attentive to the need for effective conservation of Texas wildlife.
Committee:	House Finance
Title:	Bond indebtedness
Library Catalog Title:	[Report].
Subjects:	State budgets | State government debt |
Library Call Number:	H.J. of Tex., 15th Leg., R.S. 232 (1876)
Session:	15th R.S. (1876)
Online version:	View report [7 pages  File size: 291 kb]
Charges:	This report should address the charges below.
1.	Report on the amount of money in the State Treasury, amount of appropriation made heretofore and yet unexpended, amount of State revenue required for the next two years for all purposes, amount of outstanding indebtedness of the State, the amount and character of State securities deposited in the Treasury, the condition as to the safety of the vaults and safes, and any other information deemed of value to the legislature.
2.	Examine bond indebtedness in the State of Texas. *
Committee:	House Finance
Title:	Condition of the State Treasury
Library Catalog Title:	[Report].
Subjects:	State budgets | State government debt |
Library Call Number:	H.J. of Tex., 15th Leg., R.S. 289 (1876)
Session:	15th R.S. (1876)
Online version:	View report [7 pages  File size: 326 kb]
Charges:	This report should address the charges below.
1.	Report on the amount of money in the State Treasury, amount of appropriation made heretofore and yet unexpended, amount of State revenue required for the next two years for all purposes, amount of outstanding indebtedness of the State, the amount and character of State securities deposited in the Treasury, the condition as to the safety of the vaults and safes, and any other information deemed of value to the legislature.
2.	Examine bond indebtedness in the State of Texas. *
Committee:	House State Indebtedness to the International and Texas Pacific Railroad Companies
Title:	Majority Report
Library Catalog Title:	[Report].
Subjects:	Railroads | State government debt |
Library Call Number:	H.J of Tex., 13th Leg., R.S. 245 (1873)
Session:	13th R.S. (1873)
Online version:	View report [3 pages  File size: 219 kb]
Charge:	This report should address the charge below.
1.	Investigate the State indebtedness to the International and Texas Pacific railroad companies *
Committee:	House State Indebtedness to the International and Texas Pacific Railroad Companies
Title:	Minority Report
Library Catalog Title:	[Report].
Subjects:	Railroads | State government debt |
Library Call Number:	H.J of Tex., 13th Leg., R.S. 248 (1873)
Session:	13th R.S. (1873)
Online version:	View report [5 pages  File size: 415 kb]
Charge:	This report should address the charge below.
1.	Investigate the State indebtedness to the International and Texas Pacific railroad companies *

* This represents an abstract of the report contents. Charge text is incomplete or unavailable.

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