Texas Senate Finance Committee tackles budget, state agencies' requests

After winter storms slowed business at the Capitol to a crawl, the Senate Committee on Finance on Friday restarted its work, sifting through state agency budget requests.

Committee members heard a variety of requests from the Veterans Commission, Library and Archives Commission, and the Commission on the Arts along with wish lists from the offices of the governor, attorney general and secretary of state.

Many of the agencies that will be shepherded through the Finance Committee in the coming weeks will take time to explain their additional requests not included in the Senate's current base budget — Senate Bill 1 — as well as field questions from lawmakers on any issues facing the agency that might require a legislative remedy.

More:How much of Texas' unprecedented budget surplus will be spent? That's up to Republicans

One recurring concern for several state agencies is recruiting and retaining employees, for which they're asking for additional money. Those requests come on top of a proposed $1.8 billion in the budget for an across-the-board pay raise for state employees.

The chair of the Finance Committee, Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, will lead budget meetings throughout next week as the $188 billion biennium budget continues taking shape.

Here are a few takeaways from Friday's meeting:

Paxton: 'I can't compete'

Attorney General Ken Paxton made clear that his office is not immune to retention and recruitment problems experienced in other state agencies before fielding senators' questions on border issues and opioid abatement funds.

The Senate's current 2024-25 budget proposal gives the attorney general's office $1.3 billion — a $7.8 million decrease from the current budget, according to the Legislative Budget Board — with more than $47 million going toward salary adjustments.

More:Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in settlement talks with 3 of 4 whistleblowers

For Paxton, addressing salaries is key since one of the biggest frustrations facing his office is losing litigators to the University of Texas and other state agencies that can pay more.

"I can't compete," Paxton told the Finance Committee on Friday. "It's frustrating to build a really talented litigation section and see it just pulled apart by the fact that we cannot compete against another state agency that you fund; it's very frustrating."

Outside of personnel, Paxton addressed questions from recently reelected Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, on how best to tackle border-related crime and whether it would be possible to use victim compensation funds to address property damage in South Texas related to unauthorized border crossings.

More:Texas Republicans vow to crack down on 'rogue' prosecutors — here's why

In response, Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, said she is working with Sen. César Blanco, D-El Paso, on a bill that would allow for that type of compensation.

"We'd be very open to that," Paxton said.

Additionally, Paxton said his office is still keen on seeing roughly $2.9 billion in opioid settlement funds being sent out to local governments and entities that are fighting the fentanyl crisis.

More:Texas lawmakers want to address the fentanyl overdose crisis. Here's what they propose.

More than $1 billion of that money will be sent out via the Texas Opioid Abatement Fund Council — which was formed to ensure money recovered through those settlement agreements is used to remediate the opioid crisis and has deliberately been slow to release the funds — and Comptroller Glenn Hegar's office.

On Monday, Hegar addressed his office's support to distribute the money from the Opioid Abatement Settlement Fund, which was created in 2021 to recover money and manage payments the state receives from settlements against opioid manufacturers, distributors or other parties.

The funds have not yet been distributed, Hegar told the Senate Finance committee Monday.

"My hope in getting this money quickly was that that money would be disbursed more quickly so that we would start impacting lives and saving lives," Paxton said.

More:Gov. Greg Abbott names 'border czar' to crack down on illegal immigration, lethal drugs

Capitol construction

Kolkhorst asked the question most Austin politicos have been thinking about since the early days of the 88th legislative session: When will the scaffolding come down and construction be done at the Capitol?

Currently, crews are working to replace the roof of the Pink Dome, which was last addressed in 1949 when the original roof of the building, constructed in 1888, was first replaced.

"So we have 70-some odd years of use of this roof, and we have a lot of leaks," Roderick Welsh, executive director of the State Preservation Board, said during the board's budget presentation. "It's about a two-year project and basically replacing 85,000 square feet of copper on the existing roof."

Welsh said he anticipates the project moving from the east side of the building, where the work is currently focused, to the west side of the Capitol later in the year.

As for when the project will be completed, it looks as if the end of 2024 is the target date.

"I hope it will be done before we see you again in January of ❜25," Welsh said.

Looking ahead

The Senate Finance Committee will meet at 10 a.m. Monday to begin a week of hearing education-related requests, starting with public education and the Texas Education Agency.

The committee's hearings Tuesday and Wednesday are slated to address higher education.

More:Texas Senate: Here's who will chair committees in the 88th legislative session

The Finance Committee also plans to meet over the course of the next two weeks, with meetings scheduled each weekday until Feb. 17.

In response to the winter storms that left hundreds of thousands of Central Texans without power for several days, the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce on Tuesday will meet to discuss local effects and response, and will take up discussion of the state's electrical grid.

Much of the storm damage in the Austin area was due to ice-covered tree limbs knocking down power lines, leaving about 30% of the city's energy customers in the dark.

More:Austin Energy reports 123K+ still without power; no estimate on restoration time

The storms did not create issues in power generation or with the grid's output. However, the conversation around the grid will continue to look at the Public Utility Commission's vote last month to overhaul the state's system.

On Tuesday, the Texas Senate will convene at 11 a.m., with the House beginning its session at 2 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Legislature: Senate Finance Committee weighs budget requests