Patrick, and Speaker Bonnen-announced their intent to push legislation next session to freeze property tax revenue collection for any cities that cut police budgets.Īs with the Legislative Black Caucus’ recent announcement of its intent to file a George Floyd Act (which we discussed last week), there was much more heat than light at the Big Three’s press conference. That special concern was re-affirmed this week when, in response to the Austin city council’s recent decision to reduce and re-allocate Austin Police Department funds, the “Big Three”-Governor Abbott, Lt. Narrative, narrative, narrativeĬurrent state leadership has long held a special place for law enforcement-related funding, as exemplified by the current budget cut exemptions granted to DPS and related state law enforcement functions during the pandemic. And as with that session a decade ago, this upcoming process will require patience! Where budgets end is often different from where they begin, but it is always better for your funding item to be included in an agency’s baseline budget when a session convenes, so keep your fingers crossed. That is how things played out during the last major state budget crunch in 2011 the Judiciary Section’s baseline budget began with a five-percent across-the-board reduction that was later restored. As the budget process advances and the state gets more accurate revenue estimates in the winter, that would allow state budget writers to move exceptional items like that back into the agency’s baseline budget. Note that if the comptroller does start with a baseline budget for FY 2022–23 that is reduced by five percent across the board-including judicial branch salaries, etc.-the agency can include a restoration of that five percent as an “exceptional item” request. All we can say for now is that there was a collective sigh of relief from state agencies that the request to cut FY 2022–23 budgets wasn’t deeper. ![]() The comptroller was kind enough to not apply that mid-interim five-percent cut to salary items for judges and prosecutors, but we do not know whether the initial LAR submission by the Comptroller’s Judiciary Section for the next biennium will include a cut to salaries, supplements, apportionment, and longevity pay. As you may recall, the governor requested a similar across-the board reduction of five percent for the current biennium back in May after the pandemic hit, with some exceptions for DPS and border security operations (see below for more on that issue). ![]() The governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker have further ordered all agency LAR submissions to reflect a base funding request that is five percent less than the amounts appropriated to those agencies by the last legislature for the FY 2020–21 biennium. October 9: OAG, Governor’s office (including its grant programs and the Border Prosecution Unit), ERS, HHSC, TDCJ, DPS September 18: Appellate courts (including SCOTX and the CCA), OCA, Comptroller’s Judiciary Section (which includes judge and prosecutor pay, DA apportionment, CA supplements, assistant prosecutor longevity pay, and the Special Prosecution Unit) September 11: State Prosecuting Attorney, TCOLE Here are some deadlines that might interest you: But nothing is normal about our current reality, which is why on Tuesday of this week, the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) finally took the first step in that process by posting the deadline for each state agency to submit its LAR. The state budget process (finally) beginsĪs we mentioned earlier this month, by this point in a normal interim legislative cycle our state’s budget writers should have already collected all state agency funding requests (called legislative appropriations requests, or LARs) and started reviewing them in public hearings. Allow us to propose a new, weather-related definition for “The Texas Two-Step”: That thing where you pray a Gulf hurricane doesn’t damage anything or hurt anyone, but you also really need some rain, dangit.
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