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Keeping a tight grip on purse
strings
By Texas Senator Kim Brimer
(Fort Worth); Chair, Texas Sunset Advisory Commission
One of my missions as a member of the legislature has been to keep a close watch on our spending. I have been fortunate to be a part of the state budget-writing team in the Senate, which has given me a hands-on opportunity to keep a tight grip on the purse strings. This year, I was privileged to be chosen to lead another vital effort in our vigilance over state spending, when Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst appointed me chair of the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission.
Along with my Tarrant County colleague, vice-chair Representative Vicki Truitt of Keller, our commission spent the fall months working our way through hearings to assess the past performance and future roles of 23 different state agencies.
This commission is one of the best investments of state tax dollars we could possibly make.
Five senators and five house members join two public members on this unusual commission. Our job was spelled out in the 1977 law creating the commission: to identify and eliminate waste, duplication, and inefficiency in government agencies.
Has the commission met that responsibility? I believe the facts speak for themselves:
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Since the commission was created, 52 agencies have been abolished, another 12 agencies have been consolidated, and countless others� missions have been shifted to improve their performance.
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Cost-savings estimates from reviews conducted between 1982 and 2003 indicate a potential 21-year revenue generation savings of $ 784 million, compared with expenditures of $20 million for the Sunset Commission. Based on these estimates, for every dollar spent on the Sunset process, the State has received $37 in return.
Our schedule this year is especially busy. It includes a review of one of the biggest expenditures in our state budget, our criminal justice system. This will involve both the state prisons under control of the Department of Criminal Justice and the parole program operated by the Board of Pardons and Paroles. The challenge we face in evaluating these programs is balancing the public�s need for protection from dangerous members of our society against the increasing cost of housing prison inmates and supervising parolees.
Here�s the way the commission fulfills its mandate:
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Generally, the Legislature groups and schedules agencies for review by function to allow the examination of all major state policies related to a particular function at once, such as health and human services, natural resources, and financial regulation. About 20 to 30 agencies go through the Sunset process each legislative session.
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Staff of the Sunset Commission work extensively with each agency under review to evaluate the need for the agency, propose needed statutory or management changes, and develop legislation necessary to implement any proposed changes. Sunset staff uses specific standards set by the Legislature to evaluate each of the programs and functions of a state agency placed under Sunset review.
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Sunset staff gathers information from a broad range of sources. As a part of the review process, each agency submits a Self-Evaluation Report identifying problems, opportunities, and issues that the agency feels should be considered in the Sunset review. Sunset staff also solicits comments from interest groups and professional organizations and encourages public input and discussion of agency functions.
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Public input is gathered through public hearings. These hearings allow Sunset staff to discuss its recommendations and the agency to formally respond to the staff recommendations.
We welcome any public comment about our process, so please call our staff at 512-463-1300 or review our work online at
[email protected].
Kim Brimer has represented the 10th District in the Texas Senate since 2003. He served in the Texas House of Representatives during 1989-2002. In addition to co-chairing the Sunset Advisory Commission, Senator Brimer chairs the Senate Administration Committee and serves on the Senate Finance, Business and Commerce, Transportation and Homeland Security Committees of the Senate.
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