Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, April 5, 2011 (Agenda)
Item A.1
A 1 is to consider and take appropriate action on legislative matters including, a update on activities, and b, amendments to the priorities policy po igs iss and positions on other proposals sections of the Travis County legislative again da--agenda.
>> good morning judge Biscoe, members of the court.
we have a very brief presentation and report for you today.
as you know, over the weekend the full house of representatives discussed the committee substitute for house bill one, the appropriatations act.
there were over 400 pages worth of amendments considered.
they ultimately adopted about 170 amendments.
we are still going through those to see how they would affect Travis County.
we have some hope, as I mentioned last week, that the committee substitute for hb 1, cuts were in the as dramatic as in the originate version of the hb 1.
we are checking with the amendments adopted over weekend in order to square everything up and hope to have a report to you next week of what we think the likely impact on the county will be.
at this time of course we still don't really know because with so much of this, there's a stream of funding going to some state agency, that funding being reduced by a certain percentage.
it is still going to be up to that agency to decide how particular grants it does or streams of funding it delivers to Travis County locally are going to be add ministered.
we won't really know probably until much later this year.
but we're trying to give the court as much information as we can.
the budget now has left the house, on its way over to the senate.
it is as I understand, chairman ogden's goal is to report a bill out of the senate finance committee on Monday April 18 and to have it on the floor of the senate probably the next week.
so we're still looking at two or three weeks before we have the senate version of the budget.
we do know that the senate is looking at having a budget that would have probably four to five to even $6 billion more in it for twot-year period 2012-2013 than the house budget.
obviously, whatever the senate does, that will have to be wreck side with the house budget and depending on the particular amounts and what the streams of funding are, then you will have the challenges of whether or not the two chambers concur in the conference committee report.
so the budget obviously is going to dominate things from now until the end of the session and beyond if they can't agree on something before they go home at the end of may as you know, I machines the briefly last week the redistricting is moving forward.
we already have a tentative for --map for a state board of education, as the current map does, it divides the county in half with the section north and south of the river.
>> on the redistricting, let me ask you this.
when that came up before the committee, of course, several persons had a chance to speak before the committee on the redistricting effort.
I'm wondering, any of that information that was testified before that committee, this is something they have taken into consideration and will be passed on even though, I don't know exactly what all the recommendations that have come up, but it was quite a few persons that spoke in that testimony.
what I'm trying to get to is the testimony that was given at the state capitol on the redistricting issue.
>> yes, sir.
>> is this still part of that testimony that was given?
because I'm kind of concerned about that.
it was quite a few persons that spoke, including myself.
>> yes, sir.
>> and I'm just wondering, the consideration from that testimony was given.
>> that testimony does become part of the record.
and it becomes part of, if you will, the considerations that the legislature theoretical uses in drawing its maps.
you testified, exist--Commissioner Davis, when they were talking about the, I believe, legislative map for Travis County, and talked about the of kind of communities that need to be protected, the communities of interest.
those are all legal considerations that could, depending how the map is drawn, could be the subject of litigation and testimony that you and others gave would be part of the record for that testimony.
>> coalition voting basically.
>> yes.
>> is what I based my testimony on.
>> yes, sir.
>> I'm just wondering, you know.
>> exactly.
anyway, just go ahead and say i.
>> the maps that the legislature draws for the house and senate will have to be submitted to the j us tis department for approval in fact all their maps will have to be.
the kind of testimony that you gave and others gave, Commissioner, would be relevant to the question of whether or not they meet the standards of protecting representation, particularly for minority groups.
then there are other standards having to do with communities of interest, gerimandering, packing and cracking that also apply in level review.
but the legislature is in early stages of drawing its maps as well as congressional for the state of Texas.
we will bring information to the court as we get it.
I know there will be a number of issues we will be bringing to the court specifically next week.
for this week given our focus has been on the budget and we still don't know the final impact of all the ments adopted, that really is the extent of our report for this ec woo--week, judge.
I'm happy to answer any questions.
>> I have one question with regard to efforts to coordinate among fund ent tis locally to be proactive about the budget short false we will going to see based on hb 1.
can you give an update on what is going on with your work with the city of Austin, united way, saint davids, whatnot.
>> as you know there has been a conversation going on with peers of mine, with some of the big institutions and the city, other taxing entities as well.
we did meet last Friday in the middle of the budget debate to talk about what was going on with the debate.
I think that a community analysis of the impact of the budget cuts probably is going to have several levels to it in terms of if we reduce our investment in higher education as a state, and reduce our investment in public education, there are some long-term consequences that we're going to have to begin to anticipate and try to deal with as a state.
in the short run, I think perhaps the most serious impact on Travis County is going to be in terms of workforce.
depending upon who you listen to and what the topic of the day is you know, we could have several thousand people lose their jobs in Travis County within the next year, say.
we're talking about teachers at the school districts, talking about university of Texas faculty and staff people.
they are taking a big hit in the budget.
we're talking about state employees who will be either if you are low--furloughed or directly layed off.
I am going to make a presentation to the can board on Friday, trying to give a quick snapshot of what we think is going on with the budget.
but suggesting it may be that the first impact that really is measurable and we would like to try to recommend we get in front of as a community, is going to be on unemployment because we just think we're going to have a lot of very skilled talented people who are producing a lot of revenues for our tax bases, who are going to, who may lose their jobs and depending on who you are talking to, the numbers get pretty astonishing.
I think that is one area that we're going to look at and wire going to talk to the can board about that on Friday, Commissioner.
>> thank you, deese.
>> deese, my official comment, --final comment, on the hb sponsored by representative roddest, we had a--rodriguez, we had a person here this morning about land use, can you let me know where things are at that point?
not right now but I'd like to know what things are like in the committee and what type of movement has taken place if any since supporters have come out the say yes, we need land use authority in Travis County.
of course, I'd like to monitor that.
>> sure, we have been working with representative rodriguez on trying to fine tune hb 662, address some of the concerns raised in the public hearing.
I think our next step is to do some of our home work internally and try to meet with some of the stakeholders and see if there's anything we can do to try to help move hb 662 forward.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> that is all I have.
thank you very much, judge, members of the court.
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