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State ethics panel mulls political giftsThe Texas Ethics Commission has decided, for now, that the value of gifts to Texas public officials need not be disclosed. State law requires officials to file personal financial disclosure statements including a description of gifts they get in excess of $250. But the commission has found that describing such a gift simply as "check" is enough of an explanation - no amount is necessary, regardless of whether the check was made out for $251 or $1 million. 
A recent attempt by some ethics commissioners to change that interpretation by publishing a proposed rule for public comment failed. The proposal would have specified that officials must disclose the amount of monetary gifts. The Ethics Commission voted 4-3 to publish the proposed rule, but such action requires support from five of the eight members. Those who voted against the rule said they didn't want to overstep their authority, suggesting the matter is up to the Legislature. One member was absent during the commission's last meeting so Commissioner Nicholas Taylor (pictured) of Midland reportedly said he'd try again at the next meeting to publish the proposed rule to require specificity. Trans-Texas Corridor gets a kick start with rail bidWho is Cintra-Zachry? This diverse business consortium encompassing almost 20 companies has taken some bold steps to breathe life into Gov. Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor proposal - but who exactly is behind the consortium? Click here to find out.
The Cintra-Zachry consortium wants to shift the Trans-Texas Corridor project into a higher gear. It offered this week to develop high-speed freight rail tracks in addition to its standing proposal to build toll lanes for the massive project envisioned by Gov. Rick Perry. The 600-mile line from Mexico to Oklahoma would be the most miles of railroad track put down in Texas since the early 1900s. It could pull a million trucks a year off Interstate 35 with the promise of cutting cross-state trips on rail by up to two hours, Cintra-Zachry said in a letter to the Texas Transportation Commission. The rail line is a major piece of the Trans-Texas Corridor puzzle, a 4,000-mile network of toll lanes, freight and passenger rail lines, and utility lines crisscrossing the state. Perry proposed the corridor four years ago. Cintra-Zachry, which won a bid to develop plans for the corridor segment paralleling I-35, offered to build a toll road from San Antonio to Dallas and pay $1.2 billion to collect fees from it for up to 50 years. The newly proposed rail line, which likely would be double-tracked and designed for double- and triple-stacked containers going 70 mph, could cost up to $6 billion to build, Texas Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton said. The state will soon seek competing proposals. Tax reform proposal open for public scrutinyGov. Rick Perry and former state Comptroller John Sharp, head of Perry's tax reform commission, are seeking bipartisan support for a plan to cut school property taxes by $5.9 billion by expanding business and cigarette taxes and using part of a state budget surplus. A public hearing for the tax reform commission's proposal is being held at the Capitol today. In exchange for a reduction in school-earmarked property taxes, a broader-based business tax would be imposed and the rate that businesses pay under the current franchise tax would be lowered. As a result, some businesses - such as most law firm and physician partnerships, which pay little or no taxes now - would be covered under the new business tax system while large companies that have been paying higher state corporate franchise taxes for years could see a tax break. Perry has summoned state lawmakers to Austin in April for a special legislative session to address the tax system that funds public schools. He says he wholeheartedly supports the commission's plan and will consider other issues during the special session - including proposals to funnel more money into the public school system, once a tax plan is approved. Dallas, Fort Worth work to resolve Wright Amendment
Dallas Mayor Laura Miller (pictured) said that she hopes to give Fort Worth a proposal to resolve the Wright Amendment issue in the next 30 days. Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief, who is working closely with Miller to craft a local compromise on the debate over flight restrictions at the Dallas airport, said it's hard to tell whether a new agreement can be reached that soon. Miller said offering a proposal within the next month would give Fort Worth enough time to look it over and suggest changes. The Dallas City Council set a deadline of June 14 to draw up new rules to replace Wright. The Fort Worth council set an Aug. 1 deadline. Both cities asked Congress to hold off revising the law until they can reach a local solution. Several stakeholders pushing for immediate repeal, including Dallas-based Southwest Airlines and Reps. Jeb Hensarling of Dallas and Sam Johnson of Plano, said Dallas and Fort Worth's timeline are too long. Johnson and Hensarling said they will hold off until June 1 but won't stop talking about their bid to repeal the 1979 law if asked to do so. Wright restricts nonstop flights from Love to cities in Texas and eight nearby states. Opponents say the law is outdated and restricts the competition that creates lower airfares. Nueces Electric Co-Op enters retail marketNueces Electric Cooperative has entered the retail energy sector. It is the first Texas co-op to actively market on the retail market. The co-op, a nonprofit organization, was formed in 1938 to provide electricity to a few hundred rural Nueces County residents. Today, the co-op has 15,468 active meters and provides retail energy service to 14,395 customers through its retail division. The co-op has been able to go after new customers since the Legislature deregulated Texas' electric market in 2002 but only recently made the decision to take advantage of the market's new rules. Experts said co-ops historically have had lower rates than private companies, but the initial costs of entering the competitive market have kept them away. Ex-city manager picked to run SAWS
San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger said this week that he will nominate former City Manager Alex Briseño to replace Jim Mayor as chairman of the San Antonio Water System. Briseño, who served as city manager from 1990 to 2001, was interim CEO at SAWS for more than three months in late 2004 and was a consultant to CEO David Chardavoyne through last year. The biggest challenge for SAWS in the coming years will be the diversification of its water supplies beyond the Edwards Aquifer as its customer base grows. Briseño's appointment to the SAWS board will have to be approved by the City Council, as will his nomination for chairman. Dearth of state funding prompts UT to hike tuition
The UT System Board of Regents this week approved increases in tuition and mandatory fees at all eight academic campuses in the system for the next two years. Increases also were approved for five medical schools. Regents Chairman James Huffines (pictured) said he and his peers had little choice because legislative appropriations have failed to keep pace with inflation and enrollment. Current tuition and fees vary from campus to campus, and the increases vary as well. The average cost per semester at UT-Austin, for example, is jumping to $4,050. UT officials said the additional money will, in part, expand classrooms at UT-San Antonio and go toward faculty retention at the flagship campus in Austin. Dallas to convert downtown tower for homelessThe Dallas City Council this week voted to support plans to convert a vacant downtown office tower into a high-rise apartment project for homeless and low-income residents. Central Dallas Ministries plans to convert the building into 209 units with nine of the efficiency apartments renting at the market rate of $1,000. Other units will rent for as low as $348, with 50 set aside for the homeless, organizers said. The nonprofit will seek a mix of public and private funding for the $23.6 million project. The council agreed to provide up to $1 million from a November bond election for the homeless and $750,000 in Community Development Block Grants. The city also will back the developer's application to the state for tax credits, which would reduce the cost of building the low-income housing. If the state does not approve the tax credits, the city will provide no funding. Valley legislators incensed about funding snubSome Rio Grande Valley lawmakers are demanding the Governor's Office intervene after Hidalgo County, the state's sixth most populated county, was excluded from a share of future state and federal border security dollars doled out by the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition via Operation Linebacker. In November, Gov. Rick Perry gave $6 million, or $367,500 per county, to support Operation Linebacker, "an initiative developed by the 16-member Texas Border Sheriff's Association to increase law enforcement presence along the Texas-Mexico border, particularly between legal points of entry," according to a press release. In February, Perry announced that the state had another $3.8 million more to dole out. At the time, Perry's office said each of the Texas border counties would receive $223,000, but that changed last week at a meeting in El Paso when the Border Sheriff's Coalition recommended that Webb County get $1.5 million and Starr County receive about $800,000, while Hidalgo and Jeff Davis counties receive none. Bowie County wants VA hospital in TexarkanaThe Bowie County Commissioners Court agreed this week to join other local governments in supporting a proposal to get a veterans hospital in Texarkana, Texas. Specifically, commissioners backed converting the current Wadley Regional Medical Center building into a Veterans Administration hospital when Wadley relocates. Local, state and national lawmakers are currently trying to get the VA to use Wadley's midtown building, located in the 1000 block of Pine Street in Texarkana. Construction could start on the new Wadley campus next spring. There are an estimated 38,000 to 43,000 veterans living in an eight-county area surrounding Texarkana. BRAC prompts El Paso ISD to eye bond moneyPlanning for a Nov. 7 bond election in the El Paso Independent School District has begun. Voters in the district approved a $207 million bond package in October 2003, putting a dent in the facilities and maintenance needs of the district, but administrators and trustees said then -- as they do now -- that they would need more money to address growth on the West Side and Northeast and for aging campuses everywhere else in the district. The recent base realignment is expected to bring thousands of soldiers to Fort Bliss and nearly 5,000 students to EPISD. The committee could come to the board in April with a list of projects and an amount. UTSA gets funding for cyber securityThe University of Texas at San Antonio's Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS) was awarded $3.1 million in the 2006 fiscal year Defense Appropriations Bill to support community cyber security defend-and-attack exercises, and infrastructure assurance and security research. Established in 2001, CIAS leverages San Antonio's infrastructure assurance strengths and bolsters research and educational initiatives in the field. The multidisciplinary research center is a partnership between academia, the information technology security industry and the local Air Intelligence Agency. CIAS addresses the technical and policy issues of information assurance and security and provides educational training. Ellis County urged to prepare for bio-attackEllis County Commissioners just south of Dallas recently heard a presentation on the necessity of planning for a possible bio-terrorism attack in the county. Phillip Mongeau, a consultant with the North Central Texas Council of Governments, told the commissioners there is a prevalent need to find volunteers willing to help in the event of an actual bio-terrorism attack. Representatives from NCTCOG and the Department of State Health Services gave the commissioners background on possible threats and homeland security. One function of NCTCOG is the Cities Readiness Initiative, which helps counties and cities prepare for possible security threats. This is the first year for Ellis County to be involved in the Cities Readiness Initiative. The county was told that it needs to recruit 1,350 volunteers to man nine drug-dispensing locations throughout the county, which would be activated in the event of a biological attack. To volunteer or for more information, contact the Ellis County Emergency Management Office at (972) 825-5199. Fort Worth may tighten smoking restrictions
A majority of Fort Worth City Council members said this week that they want to explore ways to tighten smoking regulations in bars and restaurants. The council informally agreed to hold public meetings to gather resident input on whether more restrictions are needed throughout the city during a meeting Tuesday. Mayor Mike Moncrief (pictured) was joined by four council members - Mayor Pro Tem Chuck Silcox, Wendy Davis, Kathleen Hicks and Donavan Wheatfall - in favoring more restrictions on smoking. No specific options have surfaced, and the council didn't set a timetable for adopting any changes. But the council listened to a presentation on the smoking ordinances in El Paso and Austin. El Paso bans smoking in bars, restaurants and hotel rooms. Austin has the same restrictions, and also requires smokers to stay 15 feet from doors and windows of buildings. Fort Worth currently allows smoking in bars, private clubs and recreational halls such as bingo parlors and bowling alleys if they exclude people under 18. Restaurants that seat fewer than 50 people can allow smoking if they post warning signs; larger restaurants can set aside smoking areas if they install ventilation equipment. LCRA to cut electric rates by $60 millionWholesale electric customers of the Lower Colorado River Authority will get a price break starting March 25. The reduction is due to the drop in natural gas prices, which hit a record high last year, according to the LCRA. The group's board voted last week to reduce the price its wholesale customers pay for energy by about 9 percent. The decrease is expected to save the 43 city-owned utilities and electric cooperatives that buy power from LCRA about $60 million by the end of 2006 compared to the previous rates. TxDOT cancels toll road contract for studiesThe Texas Department of Transportation has canceled an $84 million contract with Zachry Construction Corp. for the construction of toll lanes in San Antonio on U.S 281 north of Loop 1604, pending the outcome of additional environmental studies. TxDOT said that if no significant environmental findings emerge from the new study and the project's design does not change, it will be re-bid by the summer of 2007, with construction beginning that fall. It would be completed in 2010 instead of 2008 as previously planned, at an additional cost of $8 million. If the study determines that a full Environmental Impact Statement needs to be conducted, it could take up to five years to make a final decision on the project, delaying completion on the Loop 1604 to Stone Oak Parkway section from 2014 to 2019. TxDOT was forced to reopen previous environmental studies in response to a lawsuit filed by two groups opposed to the project, which was scheduled to begin in January. Southwestern Univ. launches $125M campaignSouthwestern University in Georgetown has launched a three-year, $125 million fundraising campaign. About $50 million from the campaign will go toward technology improvements, building renovations and new construction. The remainder will pay for scholarships, more faculty hires, and diversity and new program initiatives. Officials hope to build on the $53 million they've raised in the "quiet phase" of the campaign that began in 2002. School district drowning in open records requestsLake Travis school district officials in Central Texas are struggling to keep up with voluminous open records requests. Since August, the district has received 947 requests from 48 people. Local resident David Lovelace and his wife, Melissa, have filed 891, according to district records. School board President Susan Tolles said the Lovelaces' requests have become a financial burden. The district estimates that answering all the requests since August - about 63,000 pages of documents - has required $215,000 in legal fees and 750 hours. The school board will be exploring ways to minimize the impact on district staff and search for other solutions, Tolles said. Mansfield ISD sells naming rights of stadiumTrustees at the Mansfield Independent School District near Fort Worth this week unanimously approved allowing staff members to negotiate a $500,000 naming-rights deal for the district's new stadium. Under a proposal, Dallas-based Methodist Health System would pay $150,000 a year for two years and then $25,000 a year for eight years to name the facility Methodist Mansfield Stadium. The $21.7 million, 11,000-seat facility on Texas 360 and East Broad St. would be open in time for the 2006-07 school year. New neighborhood director hired in San AntonioSan Antonio's Neighborhood Resource Center has a new leader. Natalie Biggers, 27, was selected from a pool of about 100 applicants to sit at the helm of the nonprofit organization. Before joining the NRC, Biggers worked at a nonprofit organization as an event planner and also worked as an independent meeting planner specializing in corporate events, live music events, weddings, receptions and seminars. The NRC was created in 1994 and trains neighborhood leaders to effectively represent and develop their neighborhoods. It focuses on neighborhood and homeowner associations and offers an annual Neighborhood Conference, neighborhood roundtables and workshops, a Leadership Development program and a quarterly newsletter. New superintendent search underway in BanderaThe Bandera ISD Board of Trustees outside San Antonio has started a search for a new superintendent. Superintendent Renee Schulze will leave the district at the end of the current school year. The board hired the Texas Association of School Boards to assist in the search, which is expected to span approximately three months. Bandera ISD has two elementary schools, one middle school and a high school. |
Projects in the pipeline
By Mary Scott Nabers, CEO of Strategic Partnerships, Inc. SPI's Research Division is constantly scouring the state for business opportunities in the public sector and uncovers dozens every day. Click here for this week's hot opportunities. Updates at TBPCThe Texas Building and Procurement Commission (TBPC) has released version 1.2 of the State Contract Management Guide. Changes in this revision include, among other things, adding DIR's Technology Addendum, clarifying professional certification, and adding information about proprietary purchases. TBPC also recently modified Section 2.61 of the State Procurement Manual. The Section is titled "Purchasing Category Codes." The codes are used to document the method, commodity type, and dollar category of purchases. Perry makes several appointmentsGov. Rick Perry made the following appointments this week:
Sen. Hinojosa eyes electric ratesState Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa asked Gov. Rick Perry this week to add electricity rate relief to the agenda for the special session set to begin April 17. Hinojosa said he made the request because electricity rates rose after Hurricane Katrina, when natural gas supplies were interrupted, but they never decreased after supplies were restored. He plans to file legislation that ensures electricity bills more closely reflect the actual cost of energy, but Perry has said that he will not open the session up to issues such as this until lawmakers reform the tax system. Fort Bend County looks at mobility issueNear Houston, Fort Bend County officials will commission a study to project traffic counts on the county's roadways through the next 10 to 15 years in preparation for a possible bond issue in 2007. During a meeting Monday, the county's mobility planning committee agreed with county Judge Bob Hebert on the need for a study to update traffic trend data. Hebert said the county shouldn't put a bond proposal before voters without accurate data to back up the need.
Procurement articles onlineClick here to view recent articles on government procurement authored by Mary Scott Nabers, president and CEO of Strategic Partnerships Inc., and published in the Austin Business Journal and Houston Business Journal. [Editor's note: Mary Scott Nabers' procurement columns run regularly in the Austin Business Journal, Houston Business Journal, San Antonio Business Journal and the Dallas Business Journal]
SPI seeks health care consultant
Event LinksCAPCOG's Austin-San Antonio Conference on Entrepreneurship and Regional Competitiveness - 4/7/06 Fiesta Informacion 2006 - 4/24/06-4/27/06 World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) 2006 - 5/1/06-5/5/06 2006 Lone Star Conference - 5/2/06-5/5/06 TCEQ's Environmental Trade Fair and Conference - 5/9/06-5/11/06 TAGITM Annual Conference - 5/16/06-5/19/06 Texas Hurricane Conference - 5/23/06-5/25/06 ICMA conference in San Antonio - 9/10/06-9/13/06 Upcoming Executive Women in Texas Government events
Texas Government Insider ArchivesVolume 1, 2, 3 and 4 Archives - 11/7/03 - 3/24/06 ResourcesLBB Budget and Performance Assessments - NEW! SAO report on full-time state employees for fiscal 2005 Texas Human Resources Management Statutes Inventory State Contract Management Guide Who Represents Me? Texas Districts By Address Diagram of Texas' Biennial Budget Cycle Strategic Partnerships, Inc. (SPI) is a research and consulting firm offering business development and public affairs services. |
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HUB certification workshop in LaredoAbout a dozen universities in Texas are sponsoring a free HUB certification workshop on April 6 at the Texas A&M International University in Laredo. The workshop will teach businesses how to become HUB certified and will also include several roundtable discussions about how to do business with major institutions of higher education. To RSVP contact Laura Rea at (956) 326-2350 or lrea@tamiu.edu. CAPCOG conference in AprilThe Capital Area Council of Governments is partnering with the Austin-San Antonio Corridor Council and others to host the Austin-San Antonio Conference on Entrepreneurship and Regional Competitiveness on April 7 in Austin. The event will focus on regional strategies for supporting entrepreneurship. Registration costs $50, and can be done online or by calling (512) 916-6041. |
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