By: Nichols, et al. S.B. No. 1
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the creation and functions of legislative select
committees on transportation funding, expenditures, and finance
and to the preservation of a sufficient balance in the economic
stabilization fund.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. (a) The speaker of the house of representatives
shall appoint nine members to a House Select Committee on
Transportation Funding, Expenditures, and Finance and designate
one member as chair. The lieutenant governor shall appoint nine
members to a Senate Select Committee on Transportation Funding,
Expenditures, and Finance and designate one member as chair. The
speaker and lieutenant governor shall make the appointments not
later than December 15, 2013.
(b) The committees established under this section may meet
separately at the call of the chair of the committee or jointly at
the call of both chairs. In joint meetings, the chairs shall act as
joint chairs.
(c) The committees established under this section, meeting
separately or jointly, shall review, study, and evaluate:
(1) the future reliability of all current state
transportation funding sources;
(2) alternatives that may increase available state
funding for surface transportation, including an examination of
increases to current surface-transportation-related funding
streams and possible diversions of
non-surface-transportation-related funding streams toward surface
transportation funding;
(3) the use of debt financing in state transportation
funding, including the uses of the Texas Mobility Fund, and the
effects on long-term transportation planning of using debt
financing;
(4) alternative transportation funding options in use
nationally and internationally;
(5) current and historic appropriations to the Texas
Department of Transportation, including:
(A) whether that agency's budget structure best
maximizes the application of limited public funds toward highway
maintenance and construction;
(B) whether there are opportunities to reduce the
use of money from the state highway fund by that agency for
activities not related to highway maintenance and construction,
including such uses as employee salaries and benefits; and
(C) possible benefits of developing a budget for
that agency for the 2016-2017 state fiscal biennium using
zero-based budgeting principles;
(6) the uses of the state highway fund for agencies
other than the Texas Department of Transportation, including and
emphasizing the use of that fund for the Department of Public Safety
of the State of Texas; and
(7) the original purpose of the economic stabilization
fund established by Section 49-g, Article III, Texas Constitution,
whether that purpose remains relevant, and whether it remains
appropriate to continue using the net amount of oil and gas
production taxes received in the 1987 state fiscal year as the basis
for making general revenue transfers to the economic stabilization
fund.
(d) Following consideration of the factors described by
Subsection (c) of this section, the committees established under
this section shall jointly adopt recommendations related to the
reviewed subjects and shall provide a written report of the
committees' recommendations on the reviewed subjects to the
legislature not later than November 1, 2014.
(e) The committees established under this section may
exercise any power of a committee of their respective chambers and
any powers of a joint committee. For the purposes of this Act, the
committees established under this section are considered a joint
committee and the cost of operation of each committee may be borne
in the same manner as the cost of a joint committee. The Texas
Legislative Council may provide funding for the operations of the
committees. To the extent not inconsistent with this Act, the joint
rules adopted by the 83rd Legislature for the administration of
joint interim legislative study committees apply to the committees
established under this section.
(f) This section expires January 13, 2015.
SECTION 2. (a) Chapter 316, Government Code, is amended by
adding Subchapter H to read as follows:
SUBCHAPTER H. PRESERVATION OF SUFFICIENT BALANCE IN ECONOMIC
STABILIZATION FUND
Sec. 316.091. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:
(1) "Board" means the Legislative Budget Board.
(2) "Fund" means the economic stabilization fund.
Sec. 316.092. DETERMINATION OF SUFFICIENT BALANCE.
(a) For the purposes of Section 49-g(c-2), Article III, Texas
Constitution, before the board submits the budget as prescribed by
Section 322.008(c), the board shall determine and adopt for the
next state fiscal biennium a sufficient balance of the fund in an
amount that the board estimates will ensure an appropriate amount
of revenue available in the fund. In determining the sufficient
balance for that fiscal biennium, the board shall consider:
(1) the history of fund balances;
(2) the history of transfers to the fund;
(3) estimated fund balances during that fiscal
biennium;
(4) estimated transfers to the fund to occur during
that fiscal biennium;
(5) information available to the board regarding state
highway congestion and funding demands; and
(6) any other information requested by the board
regarding the state's financial condition.
(b) On or before October 1 of each even-numbered year, the
comptroller shall provide to the board the comptroller's projection
of the amounts to be transferred to the fund during the next state
fiscal biennium.
Sec. 316.093. ADJUSTMENT OF CONSTITUTIONAL ALLOCATIONS TO
FUND AND STATE HIGHWAY FUND. (a) Before the comptroller makes
transfers for a state fiscal year in accordance with Section
49-g(c), Article III, Texas Constitution, the comptroller shall
determine whether the sum of the balance of the fund on the
preceding August 31, any projected transfer to the fund under
Section 49-g(b) of that article, and any projected transfer to the
fund under Section 49-g(c) of that article in accordance with the
allocations for the transfer as provided by Section 49-g(c-1) of
that article is less than the sufficient balance adopted under
Section 316.092.
(b) If the sum described by Subsection (a) is less than the
sufficient balance adopted under Section 316.092, the comptroller
shall adjust the allocation of amounts to be transferred to the fund
and to the state highway fund as provided by Section 49-g(c),
Article III, Texas Constitution, so that:
(1) the amount allocated for transfer to the fund is
increased by an additional amount equal to the lesser of the
remaining one-half of the sum of the amounts allocated for transfer
under Sections 49-g(d) and (e) of that article or the amount
necessary for the sufficient balance to be reached when considered
together with other estimated transfers to the fund during the
then-current fiscal year; and
(2) the amount allocated for transfer to the state
highway fund is reduced by the amount of the increased allocation to
the fund under Subdivision (1).
(c) If the board has not adopted under Section 316.092 a
sufficient balance for the comptroller to consider under this
section, the comptroller shall adjust the allocation of amounts to
be transferred to the fund and to the state highway fund as provided
by Section 49-g(c), Article III, Texas Constitution, so that the
total of those amounts is transferred to the economic stabilization
fund, except that the comptroller shall reduce a transfer made
under this subsection as necessary to prevent the amount in the fund
from exceeding the limit in effect for that biennium under Section
49-g(g) of that article.
(d) As soon as practicable after the effective date of this
section, the board shall determine and adopt a sufficient balance
of the fund applicable to the transfers to be made under Section
49-g(c), Article III, Texas Constitution, for the state fiscal year
beginning September 1, 2014, and a sufficient balance of the fund
applicable to the transfers to be made under that subsection for the
next fiscal biennium. The comptroller may not make the transfers
required under Section 49-g(c) of that article for the state fiscal
year beginning September 1, 2014, until the board has adopted a
sufficient balance under this subsection. However, if the board
has not adopted the balance before the 30th day after the effective
date of this section, the comptroller shall make that transfer on
the 30th day after the effective date of this section in accordance
with Subsection (c) of this section. This subsection expires
September 1, 2015.
(b) This section takes effect immediately on the final
canvass of the election on the constitutional amendment proposed by
the 83rd Legislature, 3rd Called Session, 2013, to provide for the
transfer of certain general revenue to the economic stabilization
fund and the state highway fund and for the dedication of the
revenue transferred to the state highway fund, but only if that
amendment is approved by the voters. If that amendment is not
approved by the voters, this section has no effect.
SECTION 3. Except as otherwise provided by this Act:
(1) this Act takes effect immediately if it receives a
vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution; and
(2) if this Act does not receive the vote necessary for
immediate effect, this Act takes effect on the 91st day after the
last day of the legislative session.