Unfunded Mandates Initiative

Compilation of Unfunded and Under-funded State Mandates  
Status Report: Unfunded Mandates of the 80th

Overview

Please don’t pass the buck to local taxpayers!

Texas counties have long faced unfunded and under-funded mandates from the state and the federal governments, whereby the state and federal governments pass the buck of paying for services decreed by the larger governments to the local governments – and the taxpayers of local governments.

Unfunded mandates impose costs on Texas counties and their taxpayers into the millions of dollars statewide and force counties to increase local property tax rates to pay for edicts from above – edicts most often in the form of legislation that is passed and sometimes from state agency regulations.  High-dollar examples include indigent defense and indigent health care, but there are many other “nickel-and-dime” mandates that add up to major costs, such as the 2007 passage of HB 3693 that requires counties with Web sites to post their utility usage and costs.

Many times, unfunded mandates are an unintended consequence of legislation, not a massive plot to foist additional costs onto county government and local property taxpayers.  Unfortunately, the end result is the same – local property taxpayers bear the financial brunt of state directives.

Federal mandates also run up local governments’ costs, some of which are passed to states and then on down to counties.  The National Association of Counties (NACo) continues to push at the federal level to end such mandates, including the battle over HR 811 that would mandate paper trails for electronic voting machines by the 2008 general election.

The 78th Session in 2003, when the state faced a $10 billion shortfall, brought a rash of increased mandates to counties as the Legislature sought its way out of its own $10 billion budget deficit.  Shortly after that session, the TAC Policy Analysis Group (PAG) decided to push for a constitutional amendment prohibiting state unfunded mandates.  In support of the PAG initiative, 253 counties approved resolutions calling for the Legislature to pass a constitutional amendment.

Education efforts were stepped up, both at the state level through TAC’s media relations program and at the local level through county officials explaining the problem to their constituents and local news media.  The education and media effort was highly successful – with many newspapers across the state adopting the term “unfunded mandates” and editorializing on behalf of counties against such state mandates.

But while the news media decried the unfairness of costly mandates being passed down to the local level, the Legislature continued to pass unfunded mandates in the 79th session of 2005, including SB 6 that mandated counties to provide attorneys for indigent parents who contested parental termination in CPS cases.

During the interim of the 79th session, county officials maintained their education efforts, and newspapers continued to join the clamor against such mandates.  An important turning point in the battle was an interim report on unfunded mandates and cost drivers by the House Local Government Ways & Means Committee, chaired by Rep. Fred Hill (R-Richardson).  Chairman Hill’s interim report clearly laid out the historical and on-going problems of unfunded and under-funded mandates.

Thanks to the efforts of county officials, the news media, Chairman Hill’s committee and other legislators supportive of counties, the 80th session in 2007 did have a different ring to it regarding the talk about unfunded mandates.  Legislators actually debated on the floor whether a bill would be an unfunded mandate, as supporters of local government like Chairman Hill and Reps. Mike Villarreal, Joe Heflin and David Farabee constantly reminded their colleagues about the dangers of unfunded mandates.  House County Affairs Committee Chairman Wayne Smith introduced HJR 61, a constitutional amendment that would prohibit many future unfunded mandates.  The bill passed out of committee but never made it out of Calendars.  Another push for a constitutional amendment against unfunded mandates will occur in the 81st session in 2009.

10/23/2007