TAC leaders had an opportunity to visit with the new speaker of the Texas House when President J.D. Johnson (Tarrant County Commissioner) and Vice-President Bruce Elfant (Travis County Constable) made the rounds at the Capitol in February. It’s been several years since county representatives received such a welcome in the speaker’s office. It’s encouraging to see evidence of Speaker Joe Straus’ “open door” policy.

The hope for our work with our state leaders is that progress can be made in strengthening the traditional working relationship between counties and the state. Counties are a part of state government working locally to carry out state functions. County officials have valid, thoughtful input to offer regarding solutions to both state and local problems. Unfortunately, a history of unfunded mandates and threats of property tax reform have undermined communication between county and the state leaders. County officials welcome the opportunity to work with Speaker Straus and are appreciative of his leadership.

Many good and some less-than-stellar bills have been introduced. The big issues for counties this 81st Session are still forming. Efforts to reduce the current appraisal and revenue caps remain a great concern for local officials. While Texas is faring better than most in the current economic crisis, county officials statewide are preparing for the impact as demands on their jails, juvenile services, health and welfare programs accelerate. Counties stand ready to support job creation and any other methods available to them should the federal economic stimulus package provide resources but essentially, Texas counties are preparing for hard, hard times as property values fall and other sources of revenue diminish. These are not times to raise taxes and this is not a time when counties can absorb additional unfunded mandates from the state. If the Legislature can’t make a permanent commitment on funding mandates by passing legislation and proposing a constitutional amendment to address this issue, all local governments at least need protection during these unstable economic times. For county officials, that may be our most important message.

Time for Your Association to Look Forward … Strategic planning has been a core element driving the development of TAC services to meet member needs since planning was first initiated in the mid-1980s. Through periodic assessment and revisions, TAC leaders built and refined our organization by establishing 3-5 year objectives and carefully monitoring progress. The last few months, Board members for both TAC and TAC’s major self-insurance pools have again been involved in the process.

New objectives take both an external and internal focus. The plan calls for us to assess the changing needs of county government with emphasis on counties most impacted by population growth. As the needs of counties change, so must our services. Internally, financial strength and effective succession planning are major needs as we prepare for the future.

Our Health and Employee Benefits Pool and Risk Management Pool boards recognize the impact of change and have established objectives to diversify our product lines in response to today’s member needs. The strength of the pools is a huge asset. A new joint plan calls for a comprehensive study on how our financial strength can be best used to benefit participating members through pricing and discounts.

We need to hear from you …

As noted above, the officials who serve on TAC’s Board of Directors have lead staff to seek solutions that are custom-tailored to county needs as they rise. We are an organization led by county officials, for county government.

But one exciting proposal from the recent strategic planning initiative calls for the creation of an effective process to obtain feedback directly from all county officials. No one knows better than you, our members, what services we should address as we plan for the future. So, we need to hear from you and, specifically, I need to hear from you. Beginning with this issue of County, we are encouraging county officials to participate in our “TAC Suggestion Box” (see page 8) as a way to propose improved delivery of TAC services or to propose ideas that we can take on to improve county government in Texas.

Officials who have suggestions or proposals are encouraged to shoot me an email at executivedirector@ county.org or send an old-fashioned letter to Karen Ann Norris, Executive Director, P.O. Box 2131, Austin, TX 78768.