Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission
Finance Committee
April 5, 2000
Commission Hearing RoomTexas Parks & Wildlife Department Headquarters Complex
4200 Smith School Road
Austin, TX 78744
1
7 BE IT REMEMBERED that heretofore on the
8 5th day of April 2000, there came on to be heard
9 matters under the regulatory authority of the
10 Parks and Wildlife Commission of Texas, in the
11 Commission Hearing Room of the Texas Parks and
12 Wildlife Headquarters complex, Austin, Travis
13 County, Texas, beginning at 11:12 a.m., to wit:
14
15
APPEARANCES:
16 THE PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION:
FINANCE COMMITTEE:
17 Chair: Ernest Angelo, Jr.
Lee M. Bass (absent)
18 Carol E. Dinkins
Dick W. Heath
19 Nolan Ryan
John Avila, Jr.
20 Alvin L. Henry
Katharine Armstrong Idsal
21 Mark E. Watson, Jr.
22 THE PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT:
Andrew H. Sansom, Executive Director, and other
23 personnel of the Parks and Wildlife Department
24
25
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1 APRIL 5, 2000
2
3 COMMISSIONER HEATH: This is the
4 meeting of the Finance Committee. Since we did
5 adjourn, I believe, the last meeting, tell me who
6 wants to read Vernon's Civil Statutes once again.
7 MR. SANSOM: Mr. Chairman, a public
8 notice of this meeting containing all items on the
9 proposed agenda has been filed with the Secretary
10 of State, as required by Chapter 551 of the
11 Government Code. This is known as attention as
12 the Open Meetings Law. And I would appreciate it
13 if it were included in the record of the meeting.
14 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Thank you.
15 And, Commissioners, you all have
16 received minutes from the previous committee
17 meeting. May I have a motion to approve those
18 minutes?
19 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: So moved.
20 COMMISSIONER RYAN: Second.
21 COMMISSIONER HEATH: All right.
22 Thank you.
23 Chairman's charges briefing, Andy.
24 ITEM NO. 1 - BRIEFING - CHAIRMAN'S CHARGES.
25 MR. SANSOM: Mr. Chairman, I would
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1 briefly like to make note of a couple of things
2 that I think apply directly to the charges.
3 As you know, we are in the process
4 of renegotiating our contract to provide Texas
5 Outdoor Connection to the citizens of our State,
6 and that we have completed the development of the
7 RFP for that; and you will receive a briefing on
8 it today.
9 I would also like to make note of
10 the fact that the Chairman has charged us with
11 monitoring and tracking current initiatives at the
12 Federal level which would enhance funding for our
13 programs. Chairman Dinkins and I traveled to
14 Washington recently to meet with the leadership of
15 the House of Representatives, along with Gary
16 Graham and Walt Dabney and other people from the
17 Department; and we had a very fruitful series of
18 meetings with the Congressional leadership.
19 Currently, there are about 320
20 sponsors of House Bill 701, known as CARA. The
21 issue before the House at this time is to try to
22 get a scheduled vote on the floor. I have spoken
23 to the Majority Leader's office yesterday, and
24 they are meeting to try to find a date to schedule
25 it, and I have every anticipation that it will be
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1 scheduled soon. Thank you.
2 COMMISSIONER WATSON: Do we know
3 what it looks like on the Senate side, Andy?
4 MR. SANSOM: In the Senate, a
5 companion Bill has been filed by Senator Murkowski
6 and Senator Landrieu of Louisiana. Murkowski is
7 Alaska. And that Bill mirrors House Bill 701,
8 and it has not been heard in committee yet in the
9 Senate.
10 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Thank you
11 very much.
12 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Mr. Chairman,
13 if I could just remind everyone that this $220
14 million a year for Texas, one of the three
15 highest-ranking states, if this measure were
16 enacted and funded, which would be a tremendous
17 boost for conservation and public recreation in
18 this State.
19 MR. SANSOM: This Bill would not
20 only revive the Land and Water Conservation Fund,
21 which has been responsible for parks from
22 Enchanted Rock to city and county parks
23 throughout the State, but it would also provide us
24 for the first time a large infusion of funding for
25 wildlife diversity and would make a major
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1 contribution to coastal issues.
2 For example, I believe that you
3 could use funding from CARA to finance a buyback
4 program. So you could probably use funding from
5 this legislation to contribute to the issues that
6 we discussed in our Regulations Committee meeting.
7 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Good. Thank
8 you very much, Andy.
9 And we'll be going to the next part
10 of the meeting with a financial review from Suzy
11 Whittenton, our Financial Officer.
12 ITEM NO. 2 - BRIEFING - FINANCIAL REVIEW.
13 MS. WHITTENTON: Thank you.
14 Good morning, Mr. Chairman and
15 Commissioners. For the record, my name is Suzy
16 Whittenton, and I'm the Chief Financial Officer.
17 I'm here to present a financial overview, which
18 will include updated financial information for
19 major accounts including license sales and state
20 park fees, current-year operating budget status as
21 well as the status report on next year's operating
22 budget and capital budget, and finish up with a
23 timeline for the development of next year's
24 biennial legislative appropriations request. Feel
25 free to interrupt me at any time if you have
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1 questions.
2 Account 9, Game, Fish and Water
3 Safety: The two primary revenue sources for
4 Fund 9 are boat registrations and titling fees and
5 license sales.
6 The original estimate for revenue
7 from boat registration and titling fees appears to
8 be a good estimate. We currently project $13.9
9 million, and the original estimate was at $13.5.
10 But with only 26 percent of the original estimate
11 collected at this time, no revenue adjustment is
12 recommended.
13 License sales through March 22nd
14 show overall license sales, combination license
15 sales, up just slightly over last year. It looks
16 like people are moving towards buying Super Combos
17 rather than Combos.
18 Also, total hunting sales are very
19 close to last year's numbers, up less than a half
20 a percent, although that's equal to nearly a
21 million dollars in difference.
22 Fishing sales are up 2 percent
23 overall. At the last meeting, that number was
24 5 percent. This, we think, indicates that
25 customers probably bought early, rather than that
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1 there are a lot of new customers out there.
2 License sales are up 1.9 million
3 overall. License sales at this time, we've
4 collected 86 percent of our projected revenue, and
5 we're looking at about 63 and a half million for
6 the fiscal year.
7 At the last meeting, you already
8 increased the revenue estimate by $900,000, so at
9 this time we're not recommending any additional
10 adjustments.
11 With the updated license and boat
12 revenue numbers, the Account 9 cash statement
13 looks very similar to what you saw at your last
14 meeting, with the cash balance, the projected
15 cash balance at the end of the year at about
16 $2 million. The only differences from last
17 meeting are basically rounding.
18 Account 64 is the State Park
19 account. Revenue through February is up
20 18.7 percent over last year, amounting to a total
21 of $1.4 million.
22 We pulled the March revenue data
23 also to assess preliminary impact of spring break
24 this year, and it looks like it's up approximately
25 over 7 percent from last year, which is good news.
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1 I think there was some bad weather in '99.
2 As to park fees, we've collected
3 42 percent of the original estimate. And even
4 though revenue is up, we're not ready to recommend
5 any kind of adjustment, in case there's a drought
6 this summer. We may see some fees falling, so no
7 changes for now are recommended on that.
8 The cash statement for Account 64
9 also pretty closely mirrors the one you saw at the
10 last meeting, with the exception of revenue under
11 the category of "Other." There are some
12 additional Federal funds included in there that
13 weren't in there in January, so it's slightly
14 higher. The numbers are slightly higher, with an
15 ending balance of $2 million.
16 The Fiscal Year 2000 operating
17 budget status at the end of February, which is
18 approximately halfway through the fiscal year,
19 shows approximately 51 percent remaining in the
20 budget. And when you back out grant funds, we
21 have 52 percent remaining, which shows that we're
22 right on target on operating budget.
23 We've now begun the process of
24 putting together our Fiscal Year 2001 budget. We
25 are going to be using the 95 percent budgeting
. 9
1 method that we've used in the past here, which is
2 just that each division is given 95 percent of
3 what they had in the current year to start with;
4 and then anything above that, they have to ask for
5 supplemental requests for.
6 The Fiscal Year 2001 operating
7 budget will include continued efforts to ensure
8 that the budget is comprehensive. And in so
9 doing, we'll analyze each division's requests and
10 look at the ratios between salary, operating
11 expenses, and equipment to ensure that the budgets
12 are fairly consistent from year to year and that
13 nothing gets left out. Then supplemental requests
14 or anything over the 95 percent would be
15 categorized and prioritized.
16 Capital budgets: Again, we'll have
17 a continued focus on critical repairs, especially
18 water and wastewater. It will also include
19 revenue from the remaining $12.7 million in
20 revenue bonds. That would be the final issuance
21 of the $60 million bond package.
22 Here is our budget timeline. As
23 you can see, we're well under way in the process
24 with division submissions. Their proposed budget
25 is due next Friday. We expect to give you a
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1 preliminary budget overview at your next meeting
2 and then ask for final Commission review in
3 August.
4 I just wanted to give you some
5 forewarning that this is the year that we'll be
6 preparing a legislative appropriations request.
7 We prepare these every other year. They will be
8 this time for appropriations for the Fiscal Years
9 2002 and 2003. They will be considered at the
10 next Legislative Session. This is a mechanism
11 that we use to ask for authority to spend our
12 funds.
13 Although instructions have not yet
14 been received, in recent years the request has
15 been limited to total expenditures for the
16 previous biennium, and so we expect that to be the
17 same this time.
18 The request will also be submitted
19 by strategy, rather than by internal organization
20 or division. Those strategies are found, along
21 with our goals and objectives, in our Strategic
22 Plan.
23 The timeline: We're hoping to get
24 instructions by next month, and then we'll work
25 throughout the summer to develop the request, and
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1 then we anticipate a due date of mid-August. Any
2 request will be reviewed by the Legislative
3 Budget Board and the Governor's Office of Budget
4 and Planning pretty extensively. And then from
5 there, we'll start having preliminary budget
6 meetings with some of the members of the
7 Legislature. And then finally it will be
8 determined at the next Legislative Session through
9 that process next spring.
10 And that's all I had as a quick
11 update. I'll be glad to take any questions. I
12 don't know that I could answer too many.
13 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Well, you gave
14 the right update.
15 Any questions from any members of
16 the Commission at this point? Then we'll just
17 keep the Commission informed as we develop the
18 budget over the next few months.
19 Thank you very much, and welcome,
20 Suzy.
21 MR. SANSOM: Mr. Chairman, you
22 recall that last year we created an opportunity
23 for the Commission to become involved in a kind of
24 a workshop fashion at the point in time that we
25 had sort of winnowed it down to the critical
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1 decisions, and we would like to propose doing that
2 again this year if it was helpful to you all.
3 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Andy, I had
4 put down to get that three to four weeks before
5 the next meeting. Is that a reasonable time?
6 MR. SANSOM: Actually, I don't
7 think we'll be ready on our supplementals until
8 after your June meeting.
9 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Okay.
10 MS. WHITTENTON: Right.
11 MR. SANSOM: Yes. So it would
12 follow the June meeting. It would have to be
13 sometime between June 1st and August.
14 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Okay. If you
15 and Suzy would, just schedule that time a couple
16 of weeks before the June meeting.
17 Andy could come in, and Ernest
18 could join us as well.
19 MR. SANSOM: That's a compliment to
20 me. Thank you.
21 COMMISSIONER HEATH: You were just
22 promoted, Andy.
23 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: I thought
24 that was a compliment to me, Andy.
25 MR. SANSOM: Thank you, Suzy.
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1 COMMISSIONER HENRY: I have a
2 question on sunset. How do we even anticipate
3 what impact, if any, it may have on the budget
4 preparation? Do we deal with that at all?
5 MR. SANSOM: Yes, sir. And I
6 think that's an extremely good question, and I
7 appreciate it. I believe that it will not only be
8 an issue that we will want to take into
9 consideration with respect to our LAR; that is,
10 our request to the Legislature. But the other
11 factor is the Governor's Task Force upon which you
12 sit, and Chairman Dinkins is the Chair; and that
13 could also have an impact before we're done.
14 I guess I'd have to say that at the
15 present time, in light of the fact that the sunset
16 report has not been released, that I would kind of
17 reserve a final answer to you until we have the
18 opportunity to see that information.
19 ITEM NO. 3 - BRIEFING - TEXAS OUTDOOR CONNECTION
20 LICENSE POINT OF SALE SYTEM.
21 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Any further
22 questions? Let's proceed to the next item, then.
23 No. 3 is a briefing on the Outdoor Connection and
24 the license point sale systems.
25 Jayna?
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1 MS. BURGDORF: Hi. The purpose of
2 this briefing is to update you on our efforts to
3 transition to a new licensing system. I'm going
4 to cover four sections, a little bit of
5 background, and an update on our current system
6 and update on options for our new licensing
7 system; next steps, which is also a timeline for
8 implementation; and some proposed changes for the
9 license year 2001, which is really upcoming here
10 in August 2000.
11 Our current system runs on Verifone
12 equipment, which is in that picture right there,
13 and it's also right in front of Gene McCarty over
14 there. we've got a little display today.
15 We had last year 3.2 million
16 transactions that brought in $65 million in
17 revenue.
18 We are continuing to have some
19 current system issues and are working with
20 Transactive management, even including G-Tech
21 management, which is their parent company, on
22 trying to resolve those issues. We want to make
23 sure that as we go into the next license year,
24 that it is a smooth final year into our transition
25 to a new system.
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1 One of those issues is printing
2 problems. We are evaluating new paper. I want
3 to tell you when I say that that to the consumer,
4 to the customer, it will look probably just like
5 the same old license. What we're talking about is
6 potentially putting on another coating or having
7 you a glue strip between the actual license and
8 the receipt that will keep the paper from slipping
9 when it's printing.
10 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Would you make
11 sure that Commissioner Ryan is aware of whatever
12 changes are made?
13 COMMISSIONER RYAN: I'd like to
14 test it.
15 MS. BURGDORF: Well, as a matter of
16 fact, I have a little sample of something we're
17 thinking about in the future that I'll pass out
18 later.
19 His comment, by the way, is legend,
20 at least in the licensing.
21 COMMISSIONER HEATH: (Inaudible.)
22 There's no question. The earlier you get there,
23 the better off you'll be.
24 COMMISSIONER RYAN: Right.
25 MS. BURGDORF: Exactly.
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1 Internet transactions do not appear
2 to be compatible with the current system, and so
3 we're planning on piloting that with our new
4 system. Again, we want to minimize offline sales,
5 which causes all of those problems for the
6 retailers, especially during the peak periods.
7 And a lot of this feeds into that
8 bullet there, which is that we've made the
9 determination to bid a new system, and we would
10 like to recommend not purchasing the existing
11 system.
12 So there are a number of factors to
13 consider in a new system. There are a number of
14 different vendors in the marketplace. There are
15 different types of input devices, printers, and
16 license paper; and I'm going to briefly go over
17 those.
18 I will tell you that just even in
19 this calendar year, since we've started this we've
20 finalized the report with the consultant on the
21 analysis of alternatives.
22 We've issued a draft RFP for vendor
23 comments, which is basically that we put out our
24 proposal and gave them about a two-week turnaround
25 to say, "Do you see any substantial concerns in
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1 our proposal?" And we based on both our existing
2 system and some things that other states have done
3 since we've implemented ours; and we did not
4 receive any major concern, but it helps in
5 preparing the final.
6 We had a conference. There is
7 actually, believe it or not, a group of people on
8 a national people that get together to talk about
9 license systems. And that was a great opportunity
10 to look at what's out there.
11 We had an open house here in this
12 room just last week. We had a number of different
13 vendors come and show off their equipment and
14 their printers and what types of licenses they're
15 doing for other states. We had about 75 people
16 here, including License Deputies and our own
17 staff. So that was a good process.
18 These are the possible vendors that
19 we will get bids from potentially. ALS has the
20 most states running on their systems, and they use
21 Verifone equipment. Compaq has Georgia and
22 Kentucky. EDS is operating in Michigan and North
23 Carolina.
24 MCI WorldCom is somewhat of a new
25 player to the market, and they actually are the
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1 ones offering a PC-based system. And on that
2 little table over there, those are the two basic
3 new systems, and I'll talk about that in a minute.
4 But to my knowledge, they're the only ones at
5 this point offering a PC-based system, and they
6 are getting ready to implement in Montana and
7 Washington.
8 Peat Marwick, Northrup Grumman, and
9 even since this slide was developed, a company
10 called ACS and another one called InforCorp have
11 expressed interest in looking at our proposal.
12 They are mostly in the financial transaction
13 business.
14 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Is ACS out of
15 Dallas?
16 MR. SANSOM: Uh-huh.
17 MS. BURGDORF: Again, there are two
18 basic options.
19 There's the PC-based system. The
20 advantages are that it's a user-friendly system.
21 It's Windows-based. And, actually, I should call
22 it a mini-PC. You can see it. It's not full-
23 sized. It's Windows-based, which means that many
24 of your clerks in some of your stores who now are
25 used to computers and have grown up with them
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1 would be very comfortable with something like
2 this. It has enhanced functionality. In other
3 words, at some point in the future two or three
4 years down the road, it might be fairly easy to
5 add a boat registration renewal system onto
6 something like this.
7 The disadvantages are that it has a
8 larger footprint, and a lot of your Deputies will
9 tell you that counter space is very important to
10 them, because they want to be able to sell other
11 products and conduct other business there; and
12 it's more expensive.
13 This is the latest Verifone
14 equipment; and, again, that's over there on that
15 little table. They are the primary maker of this
16 equipment, at least in this industry. They
17 actually have a huge market segment in all
18 financial transactions, but they provide almost
19 all of the little point-of-sale equipment for
20 hunting and fishing systems.
21 You would probably have a reduced
22 learning curve, because it would be similar to
23 what we have now; a lower initial investment, in
24 that the machines don't cost quite as much; a
25 small footprint; and a built-in receipt printer.
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1 They have advanced now so that the printer for
2 the receipts is actually incorporated in the
3 little terminal device.
4 A disadvantage is that it's a
5 little display screen. It's primarily made for
6 financial transactions, and therefore it has some
7 limited functionality.
8 Interestingly, at the open house we
9 did have an evaluation form. And of the ones that
10 we got back, there wasn't a significant difference
11 between Deputies or employees preferring one
12 system over another. And I thought there might
13 be, but there wasn't. The one single highest-
14 scoring item was that they like the small
15 footprint -- everyone did -- of that little
16 machine.
17 Your printer options: You have a
18 dot matrix printer; again, two basic types. It
19 prints on a variety of materials. That's our
20 little printer right there that we use. Low cost;
21 people are used to it, so reduced learning curve.
22 We do use the little receipt printer for the
23 License Deputy settlement reports at the end of
24 the day; so you would always need a receipt
25 printer, even if you went with something else.
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1 Disadvantages: It's noisy.
2 When it says, "Cannot Sense Top of
3 Form," what that means is that it doesn't
4 automatically line up, and so you will sometimes
5 have licenses where the tags aren't lined up with
6 the perforations in the license, and that's not a
7 good thing. And they either end up reprinting
8 it, or they let the customer go off without it,
9 without a clean license.
10 Limited graphics and no ability to
11 print landscape.
12 This is a little thermal printer,
13 and it has high-quality printing. You can print
14 landscape and graphic. It's fast, and it does
15 know when it's at the top of the license.
16 It does require additional
17 training. It's a little more expensive. And the
18 footprint, although this little machine isn't
19 larger, what it does is you're going to have to
20 have that receipt printer along with it, and so it
21 may end up being a larger footprint.
22 I do have -- and I have little
23 samples here -- this is nothing more than just an
24 example of some things that you can do with a
25 thermal printer. You could go back to something
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1 similar to the old license, which --
2 COMMISSIONER HEATH: (Inaudible.)
3 MS. BURGDORF: Not that old
4 license, but the one that people framed and hung
5 on their walls and speak about with such
6 fondness. That's the one that I'm talking about.
7 Actually, I have a copy of that one, too, so that
8 y'all can see what I'm talking about, if any of
9 y'all -- and it would be nice because it would
10 resolve some of the -- if I tear out a tag in the
11 middle, then I have a number of pieces.
12 Again, this is just something that
13 we're thinking about, but it's something that's
14 possible with a thermal printer.
15 And what we would do is when we get
16 to the point where we're actually negotiating with
17 a vendor and we've signed a contract, one of the
18 things that we would be doing during that process
19 is talking to them very seriously about what would
20 the license look like, and we would be talking to
21 customers and you all as well. So I'm just
22 passing this out as an example. It's not
23 necessarily something that we're going forward
24 with.
25 Next steps: Next Monday, April
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1 10th, we'll issue a final RFP. We should receive
2 our bids by May 24th.
3 We also during this time period
4 need to obtain the Legislative Budget Board
5 approval on our biennial operating plans. And
6 what that is is a technology plan that we prepare
7 every two years that talks about systems, and we
8 need approval to proceed with this transition. We
9 will negotiate during June, hopefully sign a
10 contract in July, and decide on a system and have
11 that complete by the end of August, develop the
12 system in September through December, pilot
13 January through March, and roll out about this
14 same time next year, which actually, I think, is a
15 good time from the License Deputies' standpoint in
16 that they don't want to be doing anything until
17 after Christmas. That's some of the feedback that
18 I've gotten.
19 Now what I'd like to do is move a
20 little bit to this upcoming license year, which is
21 still with Transactive, and talk about two
22 proposals. One is the senior combination license,
23 and the other one has to do with the mule deer
24 tags.
25 What we currently have right now,
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1 if you are a senior and you want to hunt, you can
2 buy a $6 special resident license, and there's
3 65,000 people that do that.
4 For those seniors who turned 65
5 after August 31, 1995 -- and there was about
6 28,000 of those -- they buy a $6 special resident
7 fishing license. That's actually increasing about
8 6 percent every year as more people age and fall
9 into that category.
10 The feedback that we got on having
11 some kind of a discounted senior license: We had
12 heard before, "Why don't you have one license? Why
13 all of a sudden when I turn older then do I not
14 have the option of having one license, a
15 combination, like I did before?"
16 The feedback was pretty positive.
17 There were 36 for, 10 against; and that took the
18 form mostly of maybe some people writing in on the
19 Internet. For example, I saw some comments,
20 "Well, I think everybody should have to pay the
21 same thing. It doesn't matter how old you are."
22 There were 23 other comments, which
23 is a large number of others, and that was
24 primarily people saying, "We just don't want to
25 pay for a fishing license. We're not commenting on
. 25
1 your discount."
2 What we would like to do: The
3 proposal is to post in the Texas Register this
4 month a senior combination license, which would
5 range from $9 to $11; and a senior Super Combo,
6 which would range from $19 to $25.
7 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Can you just
8 remind us what discount that is, then?
9 MS. BURGDORF: Well, it's $55 for
10 the stamp.
11 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Right.
12 MS. BURGDDORF: So depending on if
13 you put -- let's say you put the Senior Combo at
14 $10, so it's $65, as compared to -- it's a steeper
15 discount than the Combo and the Super Combo, but
16 there aren't as many seniors who buy stamps. So
17 what we're trying to do is accommodate someone who
18 would buy one and a half to two stamps.
19 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Jayna, what's
20 your judgment of the revenue impact?
21 MS. BURGDORF: Well, what we did is
22 we made some assumptions, and we looked at a
23 pricing on Senior Combo at $10 and Senior Super
24 Combo at $20. And at that, it's basically a wash.
25 There's no change in revenue. Some people are
. 26
1 going to get a discount, and some people are going
2 to pay a little bit more to get the Senior Super
3 Combo.
4 And, again, I think we're looking
5 at this as much from a standpoint of trying to
6 provide a convenience for them and ease into the
7 whole senior fishing arena, and also maintain our
8 customer database at the same time.
9 I think what will happen -- we
10 costed it out over five years -- as you continue
11 to have seniors enter that fishing level, now
12 they're required to buy the license, whereas they
13 weren't before. You'll probably see a slight
14 increase in revenue, maybe $50,000 every year over
15 what we're currently bringing in.
16 But it's not a significant change
17 this revenue either way. We wouldn't lose a lot
18 of money, and we wouldn't gain a lot of money.
19 MR. SANSOM: It's proactive with
20 the coming demographic.
21 MS. BURGDORF: If we market it and
22 seniors are interested in the Super Combo, you
23 would have the potential to --
24 MR. SANSOM: That's what I was
25 referring to.
. 27
1 MS. BURGDORF: -- to bring in some
2 more revenue, just like we've done on the Super
3 Combo.
4 COMMISSIONER HEATH: I just want to
5 make sure that there's no potential for downside
6 on the revenue. We made this decision, and it
7 was obviously a difficult decision when we made
8 it; but just to make sure we don't move in a
9 direction away from the direction we've moved in.
10 MS. BURGDORF: I don't think that
11 the downside would be significant at all. I think
12 it would be minimal.
13 We also received what I would
14 characterize as overwhelming response on our tag
15 proposal. There were 78 individuals who commented
16 on retaining tags. What this doesn't reflect is
17 the 100 people who clapped every time one of them
18 got up and spoke. Ten people wanted to eliminate
19 the tags, and there were just some general
20 comments regarding our license format.
21 What we would like to propose is
22 that we continue to retain the tags until there
23 are new technologies available that just make
24 enforcement better, more cost-effective, whether
25 that's through the use of bar codes, whether at
. 28
1 some point in the future when sells cover the
2 entire State and you have people call in within
3 24 hours of harvesting an animal, which some
4 states do.
5 There are some options in the
6 future that would actually provide significant
7 benefits; but right now there's not a significant
8 benefit moving to a log, and clearly our public
9 believes that you cannot control harvest if you
10 take away the tags.
11 What we would like to do is offer
12 mule deer tags as an option, which means a totally
13 free option. But when you go up to the counter,
14 one of the questions that the clerk would ask you
15 is, "Do you hunt mule deer?" or "Would you like
16 mule deer tags?" And we will work on the actual
17 wording of the question. But what that would do
18 is it would shorten two tags off the licenses.
19 There are 20,000 hunters who hunt
20 mule deer every year -- and this is based on
21 10 years' worth of data; it doesn't fluctuate
22 much -- out of a million hunters. So you have
23 980,000 people who potentially would walk away
24 with a shorter license, and you'd have 20,000 who
25 would have the mule deer tags. You would also
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1 have the benefit of having Wildlife staff have
2 information on that database as to who those mule
3 deer hunters really are, which we don't have a lot
4 of that right now.
5 COMMISSIONER RYAN: Jayna, if that
6 person didn't opt to take that mule deer license,
7 could they go back and get it at a later date if
8 they decided they were going mule deer hunting?
9 MS. BURGDORF: That's what we're
10 going to tell Transactive that they have to build
11 into the system is an opportunity for them to go
12 back then and get those two tags. This proposal
13 is based on the assumption that Transactive can do
14 that, and we believe through discussions with them
15 that they can.
16 Actually, the mule deer option,
17 because it's just a format change and we're not
18 changing a fee or anything, it doesn't need to be
19 published in The Texas Register.
20 The Super Combo proposal and the
21 just regular Senior Combo would need to be
22 published this month. We would authorize
23 Transactive to go ahead and start proceeding with
24 these, although we would be able to pull back if
25 we needed to; bring it up to Commission
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1 consideration in the May-June time frame at that
2 meeting; and then adopt it in The Texas Register
3 in June.
4 And I'd be happy to answer any
5 questions.
6 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Any
7 questions, Commissioners?
8 Thank you, Jayna. It looks like
9 we're moving in a good direction here.
10 MS. BURGDORF: Thanks. And if you
11 get an opportunity, take a look at those two
12 little machines over there.
13 MR. SANSOM: And Gene will be happy
14 to sell any of you a license that would like one.
15 AGENDA ITEM NO. 4: ACTION - PROPOSAL FOR
16 REINSTATEMENT OF RECIPROCAL LICENSE AGREEMENT WITH
17 LOUISIANA AND OKLAHOMA.
18 COMMISSIONER HEATH: The next item
19 is an Action Item, Proposal for Reinstatement of
20 Reciprocal License Agreement with Louisiana and
21 Oklahoma.
22 Ken?
23 MR. KURZAWSKI: Good morning,
24 Mr. Chairman and Commissioners. My name is Ken
25 Kurzawski, from the Fisheries Division, and today
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1 I'm coming before you to ask for the Commission's
2 permission to publish proposed changes to our
3 reciprocal fishing license agreements in The Texas
4 Register.
5 To review where we've been on this
6 issue, you recall last August we eliminated the
7 exemption for out-of-state seniors from Oklahoma,
8 Louisiana, and Kansas. These residents now need
9 to purchase a nonresident fishing license to fish
10 here; and if you recall, that protects us. Our
11 annual license is $30 nonresident, or five days
12 $20. And this being a reciprocal agreement, our
13 seniors now have to purchase license to fish in
14 those states. Oklahoma's annual is running around
15 $28.50, and I believe Louisiana is $31, and that
16 is additional charges for salt-water fishing.
17 This change last year was prompted
18 by complaints we received from our anglers in
19 Texas. A lot of that stemmed from what Jayna
20 mentioned earlier about the senior resident
21 license that went into a special residents
22 license that went into effect in 1995. Our
23 seniors felt that it was unfair for them to have
24 to purchase a license when seniors from other
25 states were getting one for free, but they were
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1 forgetting about the reciprocal portion of that.
2 So now, after we made that change in '89, we're
3 receiving complaints about the elimination of the
4 agreements, because they're having to pay a
5 substantial increase to go fish in those other
6 states.
7 MR. SANSOM: And those complaints
8 far exceeded the comments we got on the earlier
9 system.
10 MR. KURZAWSKI: Yes. We had a
11 public scoping meeting last fall in Port Arthur,
12 and we received numerous complaints against our
13 action there.
14 And after discussions with some
15 Texas legislators, anglers, and the staffs from
16 Louisiana and Oklahoma, we've agreed that our best
17 option here is to reinstate those agreements as
18 they were prior to the Commission's actions of
19 last August. Those two states have agreed to
20 respond in kind. And if the Commission goes ahead
21 with this process, we should be able to implement
22 this all by the start of our license year this
23 year, September 1.
24 Seniors from all three states would
25 then once again be exempt from licenses; and the
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1 three states I'm referring to here are Texas,
2 Louisiana, and Oklahoma. We're not pursuing any
3 reinstatement with Kansas. We're we just sticking
4 with the border states, because Kansas didn't seem
5 to be much of a issue either way.
6 Therefore, our staff would
7 recommend adoption of the following motion: That
8 the Finance Committee authorize publishing in The
9 Texas Register these proposed changes for public
10 comments.
11 I'll be happy to answer any
12 questions if you have any.
13 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Any questions?
14 So we took an action. The action
15 gave us more response on the negative side than we
16 think we'll get when we go back to where we were.
17 That's the bottom line?
18 MR. KURZAWSKI: Yes, sir.
19 MR. SANSOM: The revenue is fairly
20 insignificant. I think the big issue to members
21 was that we discovered that there was whole lot of
22 people from Texas fishing in Louisiana and
23 Oklahoma. That's why it caused such a tremendous
24 backlash.
25 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Questions of
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1 Ken? Then I would like a motion for approval to
2 take this to the Commission, full Commission,
3 tomorrow -- The Texas Register; excuse me. All in
4 favor?
5 COMMISSION MEMBERS: Aye.
6 COMMISSIONER HEATH: And that's a
7 candidate for the consent agenda tomorrow, or no?
8 MR. KRUZAWSKI: It's just for
9 publishing.
10 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Thanks, Ken.
11 AGENDA ITEM NO. 5: ACTION - LOCAL PARK FUNDING -
12 FEDERAL URBAN PARKS AND RECREATION RECOVERY ACT
13 GRANTS.
14 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Item 5 is an
15 Action Item also, on local park funding.
16 MR. HOGSETT: Good morning, Mr.
17 Chairman and Members of the Committee. I'm Tim
18 Hogsett, Director of the Recreation Grants Program
19 in the State Parks Division.
20 This is a preview of Item No. 8 for
21 the public hearing tomorrow, which you can find on
22 Page 143 of your book.
23 The Urban Parks Recreation Recovery
24 Act is a Federal program which provides 70 percent
25 matching grants to local governments for
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1 rehabilitation of recreation facilities that have
2 fallen into disrepair in the urban areas of the
3 State. The program has not been funded by the
4 Federal Government for the last several years.
5 This year Congress appropriated $2 million for
6 that program on a national basis. No state is
7 eligible for more than 15 percent of that
8 $2 million, making Texas communities collectively
9 eligible for $300,000.
10 The Federal Government makes all
11 the decisions in terms that they accept
12 applications, and they make the funding decisions
13 on who will and will not be funded. Several of
14 the large cities in the State have already
15 indicated to me that they plan to submit
16 applications. I would imagine that one, maybe
17 two, grants will be approved.
18 The Federal Government also allows
19 states to and offers an incentive for local
20 governments if states participate in providing
21 part of the match for this program. States can
22 provide up to 15 percent against the Federal
23 70 percent, for which that 15 percent would be
24 matched dollar for dollar by the Federal
25 Government. In effect, if you so elected, it
. 36
1 would take any responsibility for local match away
2 from the local governments.
3 In the past, the Commission has
4 made match money available but has only made
5 10 percent available, the reason being that past
6 Commissioners felt that it was important that
7 there be a local commitment to this program, even
8 though it would be small.
9 So that's what we're recommending
10 tomorrow; that out of the Texas Recreation and
11 Parks account, which you are authorized to use for
12 this purpose from Parks and Wildlife Code, that we
13 set $30,000 as a match, a 10 percent match for
14 those projects. If $300,000 worth of projects
15 weren't approved by the Feds, then any of that
16 $30,000 that was not used would go back into the
17 account for normal grants.
18 MR. SANSOM: Members, although this
19 program is small, this money is used for rehab of
20 urban park infrastructure. So it's as critical an
21 issue for them as it has been for us over the past
22 few years to get repairs underway.
23 I would also point out that the
24 CARA legislation that we discussed earlier would
25 substantially increase funding for this program.
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1 It's basically a way for us to, I
2 think, enhance the competitive edge for Texas to
3 get what little money there is. So we help the
4 communities by doing this. I have spoken to their
5 leadership -- that is, the Texas Recreation and
6 Parks Society -- and they are in favor of this
7 action.
8 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Questions?
9 Comments
10 So this does require a motion,
11 then, for approval tomorrow?
12 MR. HOGSETT: For it to be taken to
13 tomorrow's meeting, yes.
14 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Do I have a
15 motion, please?
16 COMMISSIONER WATSON: So moved.
17 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Do I have a
18 second?
19 COMMISSIONER IDSAL: Second.
20 COMMISSIONER HEATH: And it's also
21 a candidate for the Consent Agenda. Do I have a
22 motion for that?
23 COMMISSIONER RYAN: So moved.
24 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Second.
25 COMMISSIONER HEATH: It's seconded.
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1 All in favor?
2 COMMISSION MEMBERS: Aye.
3 (Motion carries unanimously.)
4 MR. HOGSETT: Thank you very much.
5 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Thank you,
6 Tim.
7 Any other business? Then we will
8 conclude the meeting of the Finance Committee, and
9 we will go to lunch. Do you want to go to lunch?
10 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Yes. We
11 always want to do that. I just first wanted to
12 say that I believe we have a class here from Texas
13 A & M and welcome you and encourage you and
14 commend you for studying in this area. Thank you
15 COMMISSIONER HEATH: Which one of
16 you are giving a speech? Who's giving a speech?
17 (LAUGHTER BY AUDIENCE)
18 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Well, with
19 that, then, I would like to announce that pursuant
20 to the requirements of Chapter 551 of the
21 Government Code, referred to as the Open Meetings
22 Law, an Executive Session will be held at this
23 time for the purpose of consideration of land
24 transactions.
25 And following that, we will
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1 reconvene for the remainder of the committee
2 meetings and the task force meetings this
3 afternoon.
4 Thank you for attending this
5 morning.
6 Y (LUNCHEON RECESS)