TPW Commission

Work Session, May 27, 2026

Transcript

TPW Commission Meetings

TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION

May 27, 2026

COMMISSION HEARING ROOM

4200 SMITH SCHOOL ROAD

AUSTIN, TEXAS 78744

COMMISSION WORK SESSION AND EXECUTIVE SESSION

CHAIRMAN PAUL L. FOSTER: Good morning, everyone. Before we begin, I’d like to take roll. I am Paul Foster, Chairman.

Vice-Chairman Bell?

VICE-CHAIRMAN OLIVER BELL: Present.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Commissioner Doggett?

COMMISSIONER LESLIE DOGGETT: Present.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Commissioner McCall?

COMMISSIONER JOHN A. McCALL: Present.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Commissioner Timmerman?

COMMISSIONER TIM TIMMERMAN: Present.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: And I think that’s it, right? Everybody… okay, we will get started. Did I miss somebody? It seems like I did.

VICE-CHAIRMAN BELL: No, you got us all.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Okay. This meeting is called to order on May 27, 2026, at 9:03 a.m.

But before proceeding with any business, I believe Dr. Yoskowitz has a statement to make.

DR. DAVID YOSKOWITZ: Public notice of this meeting containing all items on the proposed agendas has been filed in the Office of the Secretary of State as required by Chapter 551, Government Code, referred to as The Open Meetings Act.

I would like for this fact to be noted in the official record of this meeting.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: All right, thank you.

And Commissioners, as a reminder, please turn on your microphones and announce your name before you speak.

Before we proceed, I’d like to announce that Work Session Item No. 8: Mountain Lion Harvest Reporting – Recommended Adoption of Proposed Changes – has been withdrawn from today’s agenda.

Two guiding principles of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation are that wildlife is a public resource and stewardship decisions must be grounded in sound science.

This is the path that Texas Parks and Wildlife needs to be on. The Department acknowledges that successful wildlife conservation in Texas hinges on strong partnerships with private landowners who steward the wildlife and their habitats on these private lands. This proposal generated significant feedback regarding the approach to acquiring harvest data and intended use of that data.

Additionally, underlying sentiments support the need for more time to engage with private landowners and hunters, those most affected by these decisions, to ensure a complete understanding of the need for data collection and the best solutions to collect that data.

David, I’d like you and staff to work with the relevant partners over this next year to map out a pathway to improve our data collection approach that is practical, achievable, and scientifically valid.

I’d also like to ask that all our partners bring the strength of their organizations to the table to help find and to help be a part of the ultimate solution.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Will do, Chairman.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: All right, thank you.

The first order of business is the Approval of Minutes from the previous Work Session which was held March 25, 2026, which I’ve already distributed. I would entertain a motion for approval.

VICE-CHAIRMAN BELL: Commissioner Bell, so moved.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Thank you.

COMMISSIONER DOGGETT: Doggett, second.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Thank you.

All in favor?

[ CHORUS OF “AYES” ]

Any opposed?

That passes.

Work Session Item No. 1: Executive Director Updates; Internal Affairs; Palo Pinto Mountain State Park Opening; and Fund 9.

Dr. Yoskowitz, please make your presentation.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Thank you, Chairman. For the record, my name is David Yoskowitz, Executive Director of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

We’re going to change things up a little bit. Over the past couple of years, I’ve been providing updates on our land and water plan. And we will continue to do that on a yearly basis. But we’ll do that in January.

What I’d like to shift to is really providing the Commission with updates on operations that are happening in the department, things that we’re looking forward to engaging in, and then also the work with stakeholder groups.

But we will continue to have an Internal Affairs Update, and that’s required by statute. So as is customary, we will begin with an Internal Affairs Update.

However, we’re changing this as well. I’m going to invite Chief Mike Durand, Director of Internal Affairs, to come up and provide that overview from today, and here on.

CHIEF MIKE DURAND: Good morning, Commissioners.

For the record, my name is Chief Michael Durand, Director of Internal Affairs.

In accordance with the Parks and Wildlife Code 11.0174 Internal Affairs Office, I will be providing you with statistical information related to Internal Affairs investigations that have been tracked from September 1, 2025 to April 30, 2026 of this fiscal year.

The Office of Internal Affairs categorizes all complaints, complements, and investigations into specific categories.

These categories are as follows:

Administrative, which are allegations of policy and procedure violations. Criminal, which are allegations of state and federal law violations. Informal, which are complaints of customer service issues that are typically addressed immediately and referred to the public, or referred to TPW Division for the follow-up.

Tracking Purposes only, which means no Internal Affairs investigation was warranted. Compliments, which means documented positive interactions with the public that are submitted by a supervisor or the public.

Use of Force, which are incidents in which a TPWD law enforcement officer utilized force during the Commission of his or her duties.

For the reporting purpose of today’s presentation, as well as future presentations, we have condensed this information to three main categories: Tracking and informal. Complements. And Investigations. Investigations being that of administrative, criminal, and use of force combined.

The Office of Internal Affairs has tracked 132 informal, or tracking cases, 58 complaints, and 60 investigations.

A five-year trend of total cases tracked beginning in Fiscal Year 2022 has shown a gradual increase on average of approximately 45 cases through 2025.

In Fiscal Year 2022, we had a total of 139 cases. In Fiscal Year 2025, we had a total of 275 cases. For Fiscal Year 2026, we are at 250 cases, and are on track to surpass the Fiscal Year 2025 numbers.

A disposition or finding is assigned once an investigation conducted by Internal Affairs is completed.

The following classifications are used: Sustained, which means enough evidence to justify a reasonable conclusion of misconduct. Not sustained, which means insufficient evidence to either prove or disprove the allegations. Exonerated, which means incident occurred but was lawful and within policy. Unfounded, which means the allegation was false or not factual.

Other, typically associated with an administrative or legal justification for an incident such as in a use-of-force scenario.

Of the 60 investigations that the Office of Internal Affairs has conducted for this fiscal year, nine have been “sustained.” Zero have “not sustained” finding. Nine have been “exonerated.” Four have been “unfounded.” 31 fall into the “other” category. And seven are currently “open and pending” as of April 30.

The Office of Internal Affairs has tracked a total of 30 reported use-of-force incidents for this fiscal year, with all 30 having been reasonable and within policy. And finally, since our last Commission meeting, members of the Office of Internal Affairs have participated in the following events:

On April 9, members of the Internal Affairs team traveled to the Game Warden Training Center to participate in taser training.

On April 10, members of the Internal Affairs team attended the Palo Pinto Mountain State Park Grand Opening. And on April 28 through 30th, Captain Joel Parker attended the State Law Enforcement Senior Staff Meeting hosted at the King Ranch.

This concludes my portion of the presentation, and I’ll be happy to answer any questions before I turn it over to Dr. Yoskowitz.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Thank you.

Any questions or comments?

Appreciate it.

This is new for us, and I think it’s great.

I appreciate it.

CHIEF DURAND: Thank you.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Thank you.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Commissioner, I just… maybe recognize Commissioner Rowling’s here.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Oh, Commissioner Rowling has joined us, so please let the record…

DR. YOSKOWITZ: [ laughs ]

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Thank you.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Thank you, Chairman.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Next, Work Session Item No. 2, which is Centennial Update.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yes. I’m going to start off with Palo Pinto Mountain State Park.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Oh, I’m sorry. I’ve gotten ahead of myself.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: And then I’m going to move on to Fund 9.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Please go ahead.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yes.

So, this past year has been a busy one for Texas State Parks, as we have always talked about in our Commission meetings.

Now, on Friday, April 10, Governor Greg Abbott headlined an event celebrating the grand opening of Palo Pinto Mountain State Park, which Mike just referred to, the first new state park to open in nearly two decades in North Texas.

The governor was joined by Secretary of State Jane Nelson, who was critical when she was in the Legislature and the Senate with helping with funding.

Also, Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission Chairman Emeritus Lee Bass, Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation Chairman Mike Green, Commissioner Patton and State Parks Director Rodney Franklin, and many others.

We are thankful so many were able to join us for that event. Palo Pinto Mountain State Park is located between Abilene and Dallas/Fort Worth in Strawn, Texas, approximately six miles off of I-20, heading north.

The park encompasses 4,800 acres, including a 90-acre lake, that’s Lake Tucker. Lake Tucker16 miles of trails, equestrian camping facilities and traditional reservable campsites.

The park officially opened its gates on March 1 of this year, becoming the first state park to do so in North Texas in more than 25 years.

In just its first month of operations, Palo Pinto Mountain State Park welcomed more than 15,000 visitors for day use and overnight camping.

I’d like to express special thanks to the Strawn Chamber of Commerce for their partnership. And additional thanks go out to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation and our infrastructure team who played significant roles in the build-out of the park; also many other partners and the Texas Legislature for their continued commitment to bringing these special places to the people of Texas.

Next, Chairman, I would like to talk about concerns with fund balances in the Game, Fish and Water Safety Account, also known as Fund 9.

Last Commission meeting, you asked myself and Mr. Reggie Pegues, our Chief Financial Officer, to make a presentation to the Commission on various elements of this issue.

I’ll start it off, then I’ll have our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Pegues, to step up, and then I’ll come back and round it out.

The fund was created in 1975 by the 64th Texas Legislature, and is the primary source of funding for fisheries and wildlife conservation activities. This account plays a critical role in supporting fisheries and wildlife conservation, law enforcement, and water safety in Texas.

If Texans have recreated on public water, owned or operated a boat, hunted or fished, visited a wildlife management area, sought technical guidance from biologists, just to name a few, they have benefited from Fund 9 and the work it supports.

The Fund 9 account consists of three primary subaccounts– the General/Unrestricted Funds, the Dedicated Funds, and other restrictive funds.

And due to a variety of statutory use restrictions on some revenue streams deposited into Fund 9, as Mr. Pegues will share in a moment, the department primarily relies on the General/Unrestricted Subaccount of Fund 9 for most of the operations and related salaries of Fish, Wildlife, and Law Enforcement divisions.

It is this general balance that is experiencing a concerning decline that is beginning to be masked by balances from the restricted and limited sources.

Despite Texas population growth, licensed sales have remained at only a slight increase for the past two decades.

And the pace of sales is not keeping up with the increased demand for outdoor recreation and services the department provides.

Since the last license fee increase in Fiscal Year 2010, inflation has increased 53 percent, further reducing buying power.

Current expenses from this general subaccount outpace revenues each year by approximately $18.2 million.

The current balance of the General Fund 9 subaccount is at $67.9 million. Based on current revenue and expense projections, the General/Unrestricted portion of Fund 9 will reach a negative balance as early as Fiscal Year 2029.

At that point, agency operations will be impaired, potential staffing impacts, deferred maintenance on facilities and roads, construction vehicle and equipment replacement, and program delivery will be hindered.

Now I would like to turn it over to Mr. Reggie Pegues to step through the financial aspects of Fund 9. And then I will share… return and share next steps and possible remedies.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Thank you. Mr. Pegues?

REGGIE PEGUES: Good morning, Commissioners.

For the record, my name is Reggie Pegues, TPWD Chief Financial Officer. I will be covering Fund 9 revenue expenditures and projected fund balances using Fiscal Year ‘25 data, which is the most recently completed fiscal year. I will begin with… I will start at the high level with agency overview showing how Fund 9 fits into the overall agency structure.

Then I will drill to Total Fund 9. And then I will follow up with Unrestricted Fund 9, kind of laying out exactly where the issues are.

This first slide is total agency expenditures for AY ‘25.

For FY25, the agency expended a total of $855.6 million from the following method of finance categories, starting on your left.

General Revenue comprised the largest category at 54.9 percent, with the largest component being $292 million of sporting goods sales tax, followed by federal funds at $138 million, including $64 million in wildlife restoration funding and $17 million in sport fish restoration funding, followed by $174.4 million in Fund 9, which I will cover in greater detail in later slides.

Next, we move on to $56 million of state parks funding and $17 million in miscellaneous, including about $10 million from the Lifetime License Account, and various appropriated receipts and interagency contracts.

This next slide takes the Fund 9 portion and breaks it down.

So that $174.4 million is split into different functional categories, with law enforcement representing the largest at $68 million, or 39 percent of the total, followed by wildlife and coastal fisheries, both at 12 percent, followed by inland fisheries at 12 percent.

This next slide removes the stamp funds and the restricted activities, so now you’re just looking at pure General/Unrestricted Fund 9. And using those same categories, you’ll see a slight shift in the percentages.

Whereas law enforcement was 39 percent of total Fund 9, it’s 55 percent of unrestricted Fund 9.

And what this highlights is that law enforcement utilizes a larger portion of general fund, since the restricted funding is only available to specific divisions.

For example, the freshwater funding can only be used for inland fisheries and the saltwater stamp can only be used for coastal fisheries, leaving law enforcement with the bulk of the General/Unrestricted Fund 9.

Next we’ll take a look at the revenue side of the house. Since licensed revenue makes up about 70 percent of total Fund 9 revenue, we’ll look at projections into the next biennium.

And this uses FY26 as the baseline carried forward. And you see there’s a slight increase from FY25 into FY26, and we use that as the basis to carry forward with that slight increase.

And as Dr. Yoskowitz mentioned, revenues, there has been a slight bump in revenues, primarily due to COVID, but not sufficient enough to cover the increase in expenditures.

This next slide shows projected fund balances for the overall fund and the various subaccounts through the end of the next biennium.

Expenditures are based on continuing at FY26-27 funding levels into the next biennium, and revenue is based on current estimates.

For the total fund, the yellow number at the top, we saw a slight decline in fund balances from $137 million to $105 million, but still positive.

For the general fund, the red number at the bottom, we see a decline from $63 million in FY25 through a negative of $10 million at the end of FY29.

Expenditures are projected to exceed revenues to the tune of about $18 million, as Dr. Yoskowitz mentioned earlier. As a result of this, we’re eating into the fund balance. And for the next biennium, we’ll have to submit a reduced budget request to account for the less revenue.

Some of the causes impacting this fund are revenues have pretty much remained steady with a slight increase, but revenues, on the other hand, have increased by 19 percent since FY21.

And the bulk of this is a salary increase of $11 million. And so that’s what kind of exacerbated the funding going negative. And this concludes my presentation. I’ll turn it over to Dr. Yoskowitz.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: All right.

Thank you.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: And just to be clear, Reggie and I will be available for questions, obviously, after I’m finished up with my part.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Okay.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yeah.

So, the funding issue that the department experiences is not unique.

I, in working with my colleagues across the country, it’s become clear that this “user pay-user play” model to be able to support fish and wildlife agencies is under extreme pressure, primarily because of what we’ve showed here, that there is limited increase in hunting and fishing license sales, but significant increase in operating expenses.

Several states, though, have identified some solutions in which to move forward that add to the “user pay-user play” model. Tennessee, Missouri, Oregon, Florida, and New Mexico are some examples.

So, in Tennessee, while they were hoping to get some dedicated funding from the Tennessee Valley Authority into the Wildlife Resource Agency, that did not happen this past session. However, they did get a one-time cash infusion of $10 million.

In Missouri, Missouri receives from a sales tax of one-eighth of one cent. About 60 percent of their budget comes from that. And that was established back in 1976, and it’s called the Design for Conservation Tax.

Oregon also recently established a short-term rental tax increase of 1.25 percent that would go to the dedicated wildlife conservation work for that agency.

And then a couple of sessions ago, New Mexico had a modest fee increase for their license sales, in-state license sales, resident license sales, and then tied any increase to the CPI, which is at the Commission’s discretion. And they’ve also had a cash infusion of about $10.5 million that would be doled out over three years.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife shared this concern of the Fund 9 balances, the general balances, at the 89th Texas Legislature this past session to make it aware of this issue and to seek assistance. The House did propose a $40 million “plug the gap” fix, but it didn’t pass both chambers.

And so, going forward, we would still need that $40 million to plug the gap.

But we would also need an additional, we estimate, about $7.5 million just to be able to sustain the activities every year in addition to plugging that gap.

So, what are the potential remedies? Well, as directed by the Texas Legislature last session, we were tasked with looking at what are the driving challenges around Fund 9, but also to provide potential remedies. And so there are three broad categories that the team has looked at to control the decline and get us back on a sustainable path. First is controlling expenses, the second is reassigning costs, and then the third is looking at increasing revenues.

So, with regards to controlling expenses, there does exist opportunities within the Fund 9 division.

So, there are two fisheries, wildlife, law enforcement divisions.

As time moves on, as there is attrition in staff, to look at needs and refocus priorities. And the teams are already working on that. But those divisions already run lean. And if the remedies can’t be found, then, as mentioned earlier, we’re going to have to cut services and programs as the Texas population and demand is increasing. But revenue isn’t keeping up with the expenses that we’re incurring. And as Reggie mentioned just a moment ago, that’s going to have to be part of our legislative appropriation request.

Also, reassigning costs.

The last legislature, at least in the House, was looking at doing this, such as a method of finance swap.

Some of the Fund 9 expenses would be switched over to the state’s General Fund 1. For example, game warden activities and cybersecurity initiatives would be eligible for that method of finance swap. So that was talked about last legislative session.

That remains a viable alternative to plug that $40 million hole that we see every biennium happening, which is driving down the fund balances. As an example, in Florida, game wardens are fully funded by general revenue from that state and not dedicated revenue from their licenses. This would ease the burden on General Fund 9, as we talked about, shifting it more over to the general fund. And attractive to this is that there’s no new fees or no new revenue sources required of that.

And the third strategy is increasing revenues. Fees for hunting and fishing licenses is one of those possibilities. The last time this was done in Texas was in 2010. But this can be challenging.

Fee increases are not very popular, understandably. We want to keep fees low. We want to try to keep more people engaged in hunting and fishing opportunities.

If there was to even be a fee increase, as we saw back in 2010, there could be a drop in dollar sales amounts as people might shift to cheaper licenses.

For example, going from a combination license to just a fishing license. And we did see that for about three years straight back in 2010, the last time we had a fee increase.

Tax revenue is another possibility. Identifying taxes that are associated with natural resources or recreational opportunities, those exist. But diverting taxes from existing… and existing tax revenue from existing users would be challenging, as everybody has already been counting on those funds, and those funds aren’t going to the Texas Parks and Wildlife.

It’s also been talked about endowment for Fund 9, similar to the Centennial Parks Endowment. This is attractive because of the long-term stable source of funding.

But it would require state funds to be made available in legislation and a ballot initiative. And there is a lot of competition this coming session for the limited revenues available.

And then the last item that always should be up front of mind is just the increase of purchases of license, getting more people to engage in hunting and fishing activities.

This is a need for the department to address what we call churn, or those that do not have bought a license at one point, but have stopped buying the license. I’ve asked the team a month ago to look at where we could find opportunity to address the issue of churn. And so the team is putting that together.

At least right now, some of the initial evidence shows that the best opportunity actually is along with anglers. Fishing licenses has the greatest churn rate.

And so, the team will continue to work on that. And hopefully by the end of the summer we’ll have a strategy moving forward to get more individuals buying all sorts of licenses, but definitely targeting fishing licenses.

So what are the next steps?

Within the department, we’ve established the Fund 9 for the future task force last fall. That’s led by Coastal Fisheries Director Robin Riechers.

And we are in the final stages of drafting a report in compliance with the legislative request from last session, as I mentioned earlier, which outlines the current financial status, identifies key challenges, and presents potential strategies to ensure long-term sustainability for Fund 9.

This report will be submitted at the Commission, the Governor’s office, and the Legislative Budget Board this summer.

We’ve also been engaging stakeholder groups to keep them informed of the issue and potential remedies. And our Government Relations team and department leadership have been sharing this information with the Texas Legislature leadership.

In fact, two weeks ago, I was in front of our House Oversight Committee where I talked about the Fund 9 issue. And Committee Chairman has a keen interest in helping the department find a solution to our Fund 9 challenges.

As Mr. Pegues alluded to earlier, at this time we’re going through the legislative appropriations request process, the budgeting process.

At this point, without any fixes, we will have to submit a budget that accounts for an approximately $10 million deficit in Fund 9, because that will be in the next biennium, 2029, that will occur.

There is a sustainable and even enhanced path forward for Fund 9. Right now, that path hasn’t completely shown itself. But working with the Governor’s office, Legislative leadership, Chairman Foster, this Commission, as well as stakeholder groups, that path will need to reveal itself within the next five months ahead of the next legislative session. And we can get that done.

So, with that, Chairman, I’d like to invite Mr. Pegues back up.

And we’re happy to take questions.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: All right.

Thank you.

Questions or comments?

COMMISSIONER TIMMERMAN: I have a question.

I saw one state, I think it was maybe Oregon. One of the states was tying their license fees to CPI. And that seems like a very interesting option. Is that something we’re checking into?

Because I think, you know, no one likes big increases. But if a little small incremental two to three percent increases are probably a little more palatable. So, just curious if that’s being looked at.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yeah, that was New Mexico…

COMMISSIONER TIMMERMAN: New Mexico.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: …Commissioner Timmerman.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: And that is definitely on the table to look at.

That would take some legislative action. But that is definitely one of the options available to us for a remedy.

COMMISSIONER TIMMERMAN: So, any increases in license fees have to go through the legislature?

DR. YOSKOWITZ: No, the Commission has that authority.

COMMISSIONER TIMMERMAN: Okay.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: But tying it to a CPI would require a legislative fix.

COMMISSIONER TIMMERMAN: Okay.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yeah.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: And so, it’d be helpful if, along those lines, to – and maybe, Reggie, you’ve already done it – but to do an analysis of what that would… what kind of money that would yield.

And, of course, we don’t necessarily know what the CPI is going to be each year, but we can predict. But it’d be helpful to see kind of what that is along with all the other remedies we’re going to look at.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Well, Chairman, I think what we could also offer up is doing some hindcasting. So, we can look back to 2010, and if that had been in place at that point see how that would have impacted balances.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Right.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: I think that would be informative to the Commission.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Right. And as Commissioner Timmerman pointed out, it’s… one-time lump sum increases are sometimes painful and have unintended consequences, where very small, modest increases each year kind of are a lot more palatable to the public.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Sure.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: And so, I do like that idea as a source. I’m sure that’s not going to be enough to solve our problem altogether, but it’s one of the remedies we should put in our toolbox.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

VICE-CHAIRMAN BELL: This is Commissioner Bell. How does… I know we talked about the hunting and fishing license. How does state parks fit into this, if at all?

DR. YOSKOWITZ: So state parks revenue from sales of state parks pass– correct me if I’m wrong. I’m going to let Reggie address where those funds go to.

MR. PEGUES: Yes, Reggie Pegues, CFO.

So the state parks funding, it’s about– in the state park entrance fees, facility fees– it’s about $60 million per year. Those funds go into a separate account, Fund 64. And those funds are typically only used for state park purposes, not for any Fund 9 divisions.

VICE-CHAIRMAN BELL: The reason why I ask is when we talked about them we don’t seem to be having necessarily an increase in the percentage of folks buying hunting and fishing licenses.

But I remember the last time I talked in front of the legislature, we talked about the number of folks in the state that had not had what we call an “outdoor experience,” meaning hunting, fishing, boating, going to a park. It was like two-thirds of the state, which is why the big push for the state parks so that people can have an outdoor experience.

Is there… and I know we have our RQ?

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Our R3?

VICE-CHAIRMAN BELL: Our R3.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yes.

VICE-CHAIRMAN BELL: Our R3 initiative. Any thoughts about just how we can really encourage people to participate in that space?

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yeah, so I think there’s a couple of things there, Vice Chairman. First off, yeah, the R3 initiative.

I mean that was really… I’m getting into COO Craig Bond’s specialty here. So pull me back, Craig, if I get off a little off here.

[ laughs ]

But, you know, that effort was really stood up because of the challenge that we’re seeing here today in Texas, and many other states are seeing, that, you know, we want to recruit, retain, and reactivate license holders for hunting and fishing.

But a lot of those, as I think you’re getting to, a lot of those individuals visit our state parks and they’re fishing in those lakes and they’re hunting during hunting season. But a lot of them are just going to those state parks as well, just to enjoy it for the first time maybe.

And trying to get them not only to enjoy our state parks, but to enjoy all those other recreational activities, the hunting and fishing, we need to look for those opportunities where we might be able to bundle licenses going forward at some discount as a potential revenue.

Now, the challenge is obviously where those funds go into.

And so we have to be very careful about how we break those out. But I think there’s opportunities moving forward to look at those options. I think that’s where you were going.

VICE-CHAIRMAN BELL: Well, it’s just, I just know that there are, as you say, a lot of opportunities.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: And we need to execute on those.

Yeah.

VICE-CHAIRMAN BELL: So just throwing things up against the wall there to take a look at.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yeah.

COMMISSIONER DOGGETT: Leslie Doggett. A few questions. One is, I mean, 16 years without raising, that’s pretty commendable. That’s great for the hunting public, I would think. But that strategy is always going to create the situation we’re in today, right?

Because if you’re not raising the revenue, we know there’s going to be inflation and expenses are going to grow. So at some point, you’re underwater on that. And so, as commendable as that is, and how great it is for the hunting public, you got…

I would think that you have to raise prices of hunting licenses at least every other year with the CPI or something, you know, that makes good sense. So, incremental increases are always more digestible than a large increase.

I’d also suggest that there might be a strategy, a pricing strategy that you can undertake on the licenses. You said that for three years people weren’t buying the combos and they were buying just the fishing or the hunting.

Possibly, if you raise all the prices but you make the combo more attractive, make it more compelling. It’s going to be more expensive, obviously, but you can make it more compelling if the individual licenses are raised commensurately. There’s got to be a strategy there that could preclude the big drop-off on the combo. So you don’t do the change and look up that you’re making less money, right?

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Right.

COMMISSIONER DOGGETT: And so, I would think that there is a strategy there that can compel people to buy the combo. Let me ask you. So with the shortfall in Fund 9, are we able to save all the jobs? One question before that, are the oyster beds funded through 9? The farming or the supervision of all that?

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yeah, in part, yes, they are.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And enforcement and all of that, yes.

COMMISSIONER DOGGETT: Right, right, right. So, if some of the expenses are shifted to the general fund from Fund 9, does that preclude us from having any layoffs or dramatic expense cuts which are going to affect the agency?

DR. YOSKOWITZ: So… and I shared this in that oversight committee hearing a couple of weeks– I was asked, you know, “David, what would be, you know, the path? If you could take the path, what would be the path?”

And I think this will answer your question, Commissioner Doggett.

That what we need is to be able to plug that hole, that $40 million hole that we have every biennium just to stop the bleeding.

And then on top of that, we’re going to have sustainable growth. To be able to continue to deliver on the same amount of programs, have the same staff be able to deliver on those programs, we’re going to need about $7.5 million, or $15 million, per biennium, $7.5 per year.

So, that method of finance swap that we talked about, we tried to work last legislative session, is very much on the table going forward this legislative session, where we would take… the legislature would allocate $40 million, dedicate that potentially to law enforcement, game wardens, for example.

That would free up the $40 million that would be going right now from General Fund 9 to support game wardens. And so, we could use that in the other divisions. That would plug the hole.

But we still need, as I mentioned a moment ago, that $7.5 million a year to be able just to sustain with program delivery increasing costs of doing business.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: All right.

COMMISSIONER DOGGETT: I would say this– well, thank you for that– that the number one… whenever we hear there’s a shortfall, the immediate reaction is we need more revenue, right?

And I think what you talked about is your first initiative is expenses. And I would say what’s worked best for me is when tackling the expenses in a big enterprise is third party vendors. Scrub the heck out of all the third party contracts that we have.

A lot of times, there’s a lot of money there that’s left unrecognized year after year after year because it’s easy. It’s a contract. It just renews and nobody really looks at it.

That would be where I would start scrubbing for expenses on third party vendors. And either renegotiate those contracts or cancel and get a new supplier for those contracts. But always that’s where we start in our organization. So I think that would be great for the department as well.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Right.

COMMISSIONER DOGGETT: I think you’d be surprised how many millions of dollars you might find there.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Thank you for that.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Did I hear… I might have misunderstood on the $40 million. It is my understanding the $40 million was like a one-time fix to sort of plug the gap and get us back, and then we need $7.5 million annually?

DR. YOSKOWITZ: You want to go?

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: But I thought I heard you say $40 million annually.

MR. PEGUES: No, it’s… the $40 million is biennial number, and that’s about $20 million. That’s needed each year. It’s not just a one-time fix. We need $20 million ongoing, plus another $7.5 million, to stay at the same service level.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Why do we split it like that? Why do we not just say $27.5? Are they separate?

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yes, in terms of a remedy or proposal going forward. Yeah. So, that was… that’s where we’re starting. That was the proposal last session that we were almost able to get out of the legislature. There was traction, as I said, in the House to help with that.

So, that’s where we’re starting. It could be a fix of $40… Well, it’d be $55 then at that point for the biennium.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Okay.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yeah.

COMMISSION McCALL: Commissioner McCall.

We have a question on the federal duck stamp. Do we get any revenue out of that, or is that all a pass-through?

MR. PEGUES: That’s all pass-through funding.

COMMISSIONER ROWLING: Commissioner Rowling.

How much revenue do we get from sporting good sales tax? It was on one of your slides, Reggie. But is that an option to potentially dedicate some of those funds?

MR. PEGUES: We currently get about $250 per year. So, about half a billion over the biennium, about $500 million. Currently, the funding is dedicated for state park purposes. So, there would need to be some type of change if to change...

COMMISSIONER ROWLING: And that would be legislative? Is that an option? I mean, that’s obviously one of our largest sources of revenue.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Right. For sporting good sales tax, Commissioner Rowling, there is a path forward, we think, potentially with Fund 64 that could meet that $7.5 million each year, in addition to getting a method of finance swap.

Reggie and team have run the...

And the history here, and it may be worth sharing this, is that at a time when state parks didn’t have sporting good sales tax, didn’t have the revenue coming in when they were having to let go of parks, there was movement of Fund 9 dollars into Fund 64 to support state parks.

And so there may be a fix there because there are...I mean, the balance right now, I think I mentioned it around $67.5 million. There are balances there that would need a legislative fix, but we could potentially move Fund 64 dollars into Fund 9 to be able to support that.

So, that might be the first best option to look at moving forward is that Fund 64; a little bit more fungible.

COMMISSIONER TIMMERMAN: Commissioner Timmerman.

You spoke about churn on the licenses. How do we market when licenses expire?

Do we send out anything to market? You know, “Hey, come renew your license.” I mean, I don’t recall getting anything like that. But I’m just wondering if... Can we be maybe more proactive on the notification of trying to get current licensees of anglers or combo licenses?

“Hey, come, here’s your renewal documents. Click here to renew.”

COMMISSIONER DOGGETT: That’s a great idea.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yes and yes and yes to all of that. And so, I want… where’s Mischelle? I want to ask because I was anticipating we might have this conversation, especially since I brought up, you know, license churn.

And so, Mischelle and her team have been looking at not only are we doing work now to make sure people are renewing their licenses, but what does it look like going forward? So, I want to ask Mischelle Diaz maybe to come up and provide you some of that.

COMMISSIONER TIMMERMAN: Great, thanks.

MISCHELLE DIAZ: Good morning.

For the record, my name is Mischelle Diaz. I’m the Director of Communications. And so to answer your question, yes. Just as a regular part of our business, a regular part of our marketing efforts to retain and reactivate licensed buyers for hunters and anglers, we send out regularly scheduled communication both through our targeted e-newsletters, Hunt Texas and Fish Texas, but then also directly, right, directly to our licensed buyers because we have their contact information.

And so, we do what we call “drip campaigns,” right? So, a series of scheduled e-mails where if you don’t respond and click through that first time to renew your license, then we remind you again and then we remind you again. So, we have a schedule of those e-mails that go out to remind people to renew, as well as text messaging.

And we’ve really found that text messaging is the most cost-effective and the greatest ROI. I mean, you can just see it when we send out those text messages. The numbers just go straight up as people are just clicking to renew.

So, we do that through our shop. But then we also work with Gordon-Darby, who’s our licensed sale, you know, provider, our third-party vendor, to work with them also on strategies to renew and reactivate.

So, we do have a program there. But what Dr. Yoskowitz was talking about earlier is that we’re looking at our data more carefully to look at that group of customers who’ve churned, right?

So, they’ve purchased previously but then not renewed. And so, who are those customers? Because they’re already like in the house. And we know that it’s easier to get somebody to re-engage in an activity that they’ve already participated in once, than to bring someone in who’s never participated before.

So, we have good data on people who have churned. And what we’re finding is that those churn numbers are associated with anglers. That’s our biggest group of churn. So, if we can look at that data set, especially anglers who’ve purchased within the last three years but not renewed, we think that that’s probably the greatest, you know, would provide the greatest ROI.

And that’s not to say that we would not focus on hunters who have churned. But the low-hanging fruit right now would be with the anglers as an additional campaign. And those, you know, that campaign would largely be digital, right?

Again, through direct and focused emails, text messages.

Because these are already people who have engaged with us but just lapsed.

COMMISSIONER ROWLING: This is Commissioner Rowling.

It’s been mentioned a couple times over the years, adding an auto-renewal feature, which I don’t know how many people would opt in, but, you know, those people aren’t going to churn. And it would be… I would think it’d be easier for the customer, those who know they’re going to be buying the next year, to just, as long as your credit card stays the same, it just charges you the next year just like a lot of subscriptions that we all have.

MS. DIAZ: I do know that there’s been extensive discussion on auto-renewal and some challenges that we have just legislatively with keeping that credit card information.

But if we want to get into that, I think I’m going to have to turn it back to Dr. Yoskowitz and possibly Craig to talk about that.

CRAIG BONDS: Yeah, I can jump in here. Craig Bonds, Chief Operating Officer. We have looked into that extensively. And we share your desire for the potential of what that could bring to us as far as reducing churn out of our participants. There are some impediments for us to be able to implement that, from the tokenization and the retention of those credit cards through a required vendor that provides that service through, you know, Department of Information Resources.

And so, unfortunately, we’re unable to be able to implement that solution at this time.

However, what we have been able to do is work with our third-party vendor that sells our licenses to implement some of these more automated reminder email campaigns that Mischelle mentioned earlier. So, we’re trying to get as close to that functionality as we can through reminders. But unfortunately, we’re unable to implement an auto-renew at this time. I don’t know, Jamie, if you have anything else to share with that. But Jamie, her team and our license team have been looking into that with Department of Information Resources quite extensively.

COMMISSIONER ROWLING: I don’t know the particulars, but there are so many companies and so many subscriptions that we all have that auto-renew.

I mean, it seems that we ought to be able to figure it out. I’m not saying it’s our department that’s the problem. It’s, you know, it’s the controls above us, I’m sure. But it still seems ridiculous.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: It would be nice to have that option, for sure. Yeah.

COMMISSIONER DOGGETT: Commissioner Doggett.

Can I ask you, what is the renewal rate? I mean, do we get 50 percent, 80 percent?

MS. DIAZ: You know what, unfortunately…

Sorry, Mischelle Diaz. I would have to get that data for you because the renewal, our renewal rates are different, right, for anglers, for hunters, depending on how long they’ve lapsed. But I can… we can certainly dig that up for you and get it to you quickly.

COMMISSIONER DOGGETT: I think we need that so that’s your scorecard.

MS. DIAZ: Yes.

COMMISSIONER DOGGETT: That tells us how well we’re doing.

MS. DIAZ: Absolutely.

COMMISSIONER DOGGETT: I mean, we’re doing a lot of initiatives, right, to increase that number, but we’ve got to have the scorecard to see how well we’re doing.

MS. DIAZ: Absolutely, we do have a baseline.

COMMISSIONER DOGGETT: One, two…

And I agree with Commissioner Rowling. I mean, it’s… we’ve just got to figure it out.

You know, we get stuck in the sand on these issues for…

There’s a way around it.

We’ve got to figure it out because it’s so meaningful to the state to have somebody just retain the credit card. When you said they can get on the text and click and they renew the license, that’s not really accurate, right? If we don’t have the credit card, it’s more than a click, right?

MS. DIAZ: It’s more than one click.

COMMISSIONER DOGGETT: Right. But if it was a click, it could be a game changer, right? And, I mean… and if you got up to 90 percent… there’s going to be a lot of attrition, right? But if you got up close to that on renewals, I mean, that could materially bridge some of the gap that we have going on financially.

So, it’s a big…

So, I would just… I would… we’ve got to figure it out, right?

And another thing is the…

And so, if you guys need help from the Commission to really…

I know you’re actively doing it, but we don’t seem like we’re getting it over the goal line. Let’s get all hands on deck and just get that done.

It seems like once we get it we’ll go, “Oh, it wasn’t that hard.” But we’ve got to concentrate and get that over the goal line. The other thing that is great is the lifetime hunting and fishing license. And I don’t ever see that, really.

It may be advertised, but I think social media getting out really hard. And I think that’s something we’d want to sell, right, aggressively. It could be very meaningful.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Absolutely. In fact, part of the marketing effort that I’ve asked the marketing communications team to work on is all licenses, including the lifetime licenses.

COMMISSIONER DOGGETT: Right.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yeah.

COMMISSIONER DOGGETT: And so, when I was offered… You know, I’d go to Academy and get my licenses and they said, “Well, and want a lifetime?” I said, “You mean I’d never have to come back in here again? That is great.” Not that I don’t like the Academy.

But the lifetime is really a benefit for the hunting public, I think. And for us, because the dollars are so much bigger, I think that a strategy really on social media that get that word out and advertise would be well worth the time and effort.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: So, I want… do want to answer part of your question about the churn rate. And I wrote this down before I came into the hearing room today.

So, for fishing licenses– and we’ll get the Commission the rest of the analysis that we did– but for fishing licenses themselves, the churn rate is 57 percent.

So, we’re only getting 43 percent that are continuing to renew.

So, we need to turn the corner on that.

I completely agree. And we’ll get the Commission those other numbers. I would also, to your point, Commissioner Rowling, I think these are, you know, serious discussions we need to have with Department of Information Resources; to get this auto renew feature available, may need some statutory fix downtown next legislative session.

But it absolutely needs to be on the table. That would help tremendously.

COMMISSIONER McCALL: Okay.

Commissioner McCall.

I know you said you’ve got an active renewal process to remind people. I’ve never… I’ve been… I’ve never gone without a hunting license my whole life. I’ve never got a text. I’ve never got an email reminding me to do that. So, obviously there’s a lot we’re missing here. Is there a way to when you buy the license to make sure you’ve got an active email or a phone number on there or something; we can get that text.

Because it’s all auto.

When you go, they’ve got you in the system. It’s pretty easy.

I like that. I’m not trying to make it complicated. I like going in there and getting a license and getting in there and getting out of there.

I always go to the local feed store because I can get in and out of there quick and you don’t have to fight anybody.

But they obviously don’t have my phone number on there because I don’t get any text or anything like that. Is there a way to make that where everybody puts a phone number on there and everybody gets a text?

It’s kind of like patient renewal in my eye clinic. You know, you let that slip and then you finally realize, you know, you’re not sending out reminder notices enough.

So you start reading… and then all of a sudden everything fills up for two months. I mean, it works.

MS. DIAZ: We do. We work with our data analysts and our license vendor to send out those email reminders.

It could be, Commissioner, that you’re renewing so faithfully that you’re not on our delinquent list, and therefore you’re not waiting long enough for us to ping you.

I’m not exactly sure why you haven’t gotten a renewal notice.

But I suspect that may be it, is that you’re very diligent in doing it, and doing it right away.

But we do have scheduled and layered communication for people who have lapsed, right, as the season comes along. And there’s, you know, people will get reminders through our Hunt and Fish Texas e-newsletter.

So there’s the first reminder in there. And then if you haven’t renewed, you’ll get that first email from us, and then a second email, and then a text message. So, there is that layered reminder approach for both types of licenses.

COMMISSIONER McCALL: Well, here’s what I would suggest is we be preemptive about it. Because once you, once somebody’s already missed the opening day of dove season, they may go, “Oh man, I wish I…”

You know, “Okay, I didn’t get a license. Now I’m too busy.

I didn’t do it.”

You get behind the curve you may not catch back up.But maybe the first of August everybody gets a reminder that says, “Hey, you know, your hunting license expires in 30 days, you need to renew it.

Don’t miss that first day of dove season.” I mean, that, I think that’s what you… I think you got to get ahead of this.

MS. DIAZ: Thank you.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Commissioner McCall, you sound like a great candidate for a lifetime license.

[ laughter ]

You never have to worry about that.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: That reminds me, do all licenses expire at the same time, or does it… or is it based on when you bought it?

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yeah.

COMMISSIONER McCALL: August 31.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yeah, but there’s a year-over-year one that you can purchase also.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Okay.

MR. BONDS: For fishing.

This is Craig Bonds.

Yeah, for fishing, there’s a year from date license. It’s actually a year plus a month from date of license. And the reminders for those are critically important because it’s easier for folks that buy at some point during the annual cycle to forget when they bought. And so those reminders do come in quite handy. And we see a return on those communications.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: You know, another thing I’d like to see as we examine all this and try to right size our revenue is the calculation.

I don’t know what the calculation or the algorithm that we use to calculate what a lifetime license costs versus renewing annually.

But it’d be interesting to look at that and be sure that that is in line and, you know, make sense.

We want it to be attractive enough that people buy the lifetime. But we don’t want it to be so cheap that…You know, we don’t want it to be such a bargain that we’re actually costing ourselves…

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Good to know.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: …too much money by allowing people to buy a lifetime. So, it’d just be interesting to see those numbers. I don’t know what they are off my head.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yeah.

Thank you, thank you for that.

MR. BONDS: One other quick just point I want to get on the record, and for the situational awareness of the Commissioners if you aren’t already aware, is that the funds that the revenues that are brought in with the sale of lifetime licenses goes into an endowment fund. So it doesn’t go into Fund 9.

Certainly, those balances help us deliver our mission. But it is into a separate account. And so we are able to spend down to a floor on that corpus for certain designated allowable expenses out of the license… lifetime license endowment account. Just wanted to put that on the record for y’all.

COMMISSIONER McCALL: How big is that account?

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Reggie, you got this?

Lifetime.

MR. PEGUES: It’s currently about $30 million, and we have a floor of $20 million. So, right now, we could spend about $10 million.

COMMISSIONER McCALL: Back to that renewal as I’m thinking about this.

You know, my practice is mostly medical.

So, we bring these patients back 90 percent of them every six months.

Well, it’s hard to get in.

So, we’re going to make sure they don’t miss that appointment. So, we’re calling ahead of time. We don’t wait till they miss it and then say, “You missed the appointment, can we work you back in now?”

I just think we need to get ahead of this on the license renewal. And I think it would make a tremendous difference if that renewal came out 30 days to everybody.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Yeah.

So, what we will… Working with the team over the next couple of months, we’re going to nail this down and then come back with an update in August to the Commission meeting as part of my update on how we’re doing that.

Where we might be able to make some progress on auto renew, look at what it would take to do that, share that with the Commission with the August Commission meeting.

Yeah.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Okay.

Thank you.

DR. YOSKOWITZ: Thank you, Chairman.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: All right.

Work Session Item No. 2: Centennial Update.

Mr. Rodney Franklin.

RODNEY FRANKLIN: Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners.

For the record, my name is Rodney Franklin, State Parks Director Texas Parks and Wildlife. Today, I’ll be updating the Commission on the progress of the Centennial Fund and the Centennial Parks Plan.

As required by the Commission, this is our annual update. As a reminder, in 2023, Texans voted overwhelmingly, 77 percent in fact, in favor of Proposition 14, constitutional amendment to create a $1 billion Centennial Parks Foundation… or Conservation Fund to increase public access to state parks.

The fund can be used to acquire property and the development of those… that property; just the interest on that. And we’ll get into the details a little bit later. But only the interest could be spent as outlined by SB, Senate Bill 1648, which talks through the administration and management of the fund.

A little bit of facts on the Centennial Fund. It’s held outside the treasury, and is invested in the treasury pool as permitted by statute. We began acquiring interest on the fund in January of 2024.

So the balance includes the $1 billion endowment plus the additional interest that has been accrued. Approximately $4 million in interest is earned per month in the existing balance. And we’ll talk a little bit more about that moving forward.

In March of 2025, the Commission directed the staff to adopt a written plan, establishing a formalized and transparent process for a phased opening of new state parks.

So we have Commission Plan 22 for New Park Development and an Agency New Park Development Plan. And those basically allow us to simultaneously build out and construct these parks while we’re having public access to those parks. So it outlines a phased approach.

Phase I is the facilitated public use of the property before we have really a whole lot of amenities in the first 12 months of owning the property.

And then Phase II, within 18 months we’ll facilitate a little bit more enhanced usage of parks with more trails, more overlooks, more wildlife viewing, parking lot, and some restroom facilities.

And then within 48 months of owning the property that would be the full opening of the park. And continued development can happen on an ongoing basis as funds allow and the interest accrues on the Centennial Fund.

So a little bit of stats on the Centennial Fund balance. As of April 26, we had accrued just under $100 million in interest in the Centennial Parks Plan.

The March interest rate earnings was about… just under $3.6 million.

We’ve achieved and gotten approval from the LBB for appropriations of $64 million, $28 million of which we have encumbered in some contracts.

But we’ve only actually expended $10 million out of the Centennial Fund to date because we spend monies as we get invoices.

And we want to leave the fund in the Centennial Fund as long as possible to continue to accrue interest.

So here’s a little bit about where our centennial investments will be going.

We’ve talked about all of these properties with the Commission before.

But the first one we acquired we tripled the size of Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. The second one on the list, and we’ll talk about each of these, Post Oak Ridge State Park there on the Colorado River. Bear Creek State Park, also one of our properties that we acquired in August.

And I’m very happy to announce as of last week, late last week, the department was able to acquire 54,000 acres of a new state park property that will be called Silver Lake State Park. So that just happened, and that’s our newest acquisition for the Centennial Parks Plan.

So really happy about that.

Really thankful for the generosity of the Moody Foundation that made this purchase possible.

Want to also give a shout out to our land conservation team and our legal team as well. Theda did a great job helping us get this property over the goal line. With 54,000 acres, a lot of I’s to dot and T’s to cross. And we were able to get that done last week. So very happy about that.

Okay. Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. That’s the first property that we expanded. One of our most popular state parks. We tripled the size there in January of last year, increased by 3,700 acres.

And as part of the plan and the development strategy, we’ve already had public hunts on that property that have been successful.

We’re continuing to do guided hikes on that property as well that have been very popular for the public.

As we develop the property, infrastructure division is doing a great job managing the development of the Phase I and Phase II development.

We’ve had two public meetings already to engage the public in what they would like to see at the property at Enchanted Rock. And we have two more scheduled coming up this month. And you’ll see that in some of the other properties.

We’ve already done some public engagement. And we’re doing a round two of some of that public engagement coming up this month.

In July of this year, we will open up for Phase II where people can make reservations and start enjoying that property and do the wildlife viewing, enjoying some of the water that’s on that property. So, Phase II is happening in July, and meeting that 18-month deadline.

And in 2029, you’ll see this a lot, the complete expansion opening will be complete for Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. Here’s a few photos of some of the work that has taken place.

We’ve had volunteers helping us build trails on that property that are going to be enjoyed by the public. Some of the pictures of our community engagement. They’ve been very popular, and it’s been a good way to engage the public and hear feedback on what we’re planning for each of the properties.

The next state park is Post Oak Ridge. We acquired that in March of 2025. 3,100 acres. They’re composed of two ranches. We’ve hired the superintendent at Post Oak Ridge. Casey is doing a great job. She’s helped us facilitate some of the ongoing trail guided hikes that we’re doing there.

And also, we’ve had public hunts on that property already.Also, we’ve had the public meetings there in January.

We’ve got a few coming up just in the next few weeks on the development for Phase I. And the Phase II access to Post Oak Ridge will happen in September of this year.

So, 18 months and we’ll start the Phase II which will have more trails, overlooks. We already have a temporary headquarters there. We’ll have some restrooms and maybe some limited overnight. So, the full opening of the property there will be March of 2029.

And on the development side, here are a few photos from the guided hikes that are ongoing as we speak. And we’ve talked about this before.

The adult public hunt that we had on that property was attended by the Governor. So, it was a great event. And the hunters were excited to be able to access that property for the public hunt. You’ll see our temporary headquarters there. We have some parking installed.

And we have started upgrading the trail system there so folks can enjoy that property and take advantage of all the wildlife that you see at Post Oak Ridge and get access to the Colorado River. And then there’s a photo of our community engagement that’s taken place for this property as well.

Bear Creek, one of our newer acquisitions, happened in August of last year. 1,700 acres just down the road from our busiest state park, Garner. So, it’ll be a nice compliment to all the folks that are coming to see Garner. They can take a day trip over to Bear Creek as well.

The superintendent is on site as of a few months ago, and already within the first few months engaged some guided public hikes there. We had about 25 people that got a sneak peek of the property there. And we’re on track to have this next round of public hunts.

We’ll have Bear Creek listed as an option on our public hunts. We’ve had two public meetings to engage the public in some feedback in March, and we’ll schedule some more moving forward. Phase II implementation there will be in 2027, in February, and the full park opening there in 2029, in late 2029.

A few photos of Bear Creek. There’s a picture of our guided hike. We’ve already got the sign made there, and those folks were able to enjoy the park. There’s a community engagement that we had for Bear Creek as well.

And as we’ve mentioned to the Commission before, we start early on the resource surveys, both natural and cultural.

We found some historic artifacts and some cultural artifacts on that property.

So, we’ll continue that process as well, so we can make sure that we’re protecting those very special resources there at Bear Creek.

And then finally, our newest acquisition, Silver Lake State Park. 54,000 acres closed just last Friday on that property. So, excited about that. We’ve been able to work with the Moody’s to start some initial resource surveys even before we closed on the property.

We’re recruiting a superintendent for that park right now. So, if you know anyone that’s interested, please send them our way. We need somebody to caretake that 54,000 acres.

And we’ll start hiring others to be able to take care of some of the facilities that are there, and protect the property as we are now the owners.

We’ll be scheduling public meetings there. And we’ll have Phase I amenities all done in September of 2027. That will be that 18-month mark.

And then full park opening a year after those first few because we just acquired this one in 2026. That 48 months will hit in 2030.

So that’s when we’ll fully open Silver Lake State Park. So, excited about that 54,000 acres and what it will allow the public to enjoy.

Here’s a few photos of that property. Our natural resource team has done a lot of surveys of the Silver Lake itself. Really clean body of water there that’ll be great for fishing and kayaking.

So those resource surveys are critical. And they’re really excited about what that ranch has to offer and what it will offer new users for that state park at Silver Lake.

So, I’ll close by saying the Centennial Parks Fund has been incredibly successful for the state of Texas.

A lot of people in the agency, in the department, all different divisions working hard to make sure we’re acquiring the best properties but also moving very quickly to get those properties developed and provide good access and phased approach to opening and providing that to the public.

So, kudos to our state parks team and also our infrastructure team for meeting weekly to make sure that we’re moving all the chess pieces properly.

And moving forward, we’re going to continue to target very special properties for the Centennial Fund. We’re focusing on that Texas triangle where we can provide more opportunities for where the most people are. But we’re also looking in the valley. And we’re looking at East Texas and to create those very special opportunities and destination parks.

So, moving forward as we focus on developing the parks that we have now with the Centennial Fund, moving forward we’re going to continue to look for those great opportunities. And the Centennial Fund offers us that opportunity to really connect the people of Texas to great outdoor experiences. So, really excited about that.

That concludes my presentation, and happy to answer any questions.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Questions?

Timmerman.

COMMISSIONER TIMMERMAN: Commissioner Timmerman.

Question on the Centennial Fund.

How do we allocate between park acquisition and park development?

MR. FRANKLIN: Yeah.

That’s a great question, and it is a balance. I’ll just remind the Commission some of these initial purchases were purchased with supplemental funding that we had previously.

So we did not have to tap into the Centennial Fund for acquisitions of those first three.

So that gave us an opportunity to build interest in the Centennial Fund. The first purchase using a portion of the Centennial Fund for acquisition was indeed Silver Lake. We used a portion of it for that.

So, our infrastructure team works with us on looking at a pro forma that kind of sketches out what we think interest might be. And then we balance that with what we know we have to develop currently.

And as opportunities come our way that might make a great state park, we have to look which pot of money might make the most sense for purchase. And if there’s a way to leverage some Centennial Funds in that new acquisition, we’ll do that as we manage through the development process.

But we also try to leverage other funds if needed as well, just to preserve the interest on the Centennial Fund, and that includes using partners when we need to.

COMMISSIONER TIMMERMAN: So there’s not a typical allocation.

It’s just, I guess, however the department feels the funds are… where the funds are needed at any particular time.

MR. FRANKLIN: That’s correct .

Because the interest on the fund can be used both for acquisition and development. So, we’re just balancing those two.

COMMISSIONER TIMMERMAN: Yeah, okay.

Thank you.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: And that kind of leads to another question.

That is how do we… what is the process we go through to decide how much to develop a new park? I mean, 54,000 acres is 80 square miles or more.

MR. FRANKLIN: Mm-hmm.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: I mean, you could spend… I would assume you could spend the entire balance just on that one park if you decided to build trails all over the entire place and restrooms and camping facilities and entrances and whatever.

What is that process, and how, without taking up too much time…

But I’m just curious kind of how are those decisions made?

MR. FRANKLIN: I appreciate the question, Mr. Chairman.

And it is a process, to be fair.

It includes a family of people from our infrastructure team to our state park planners. One of the first things we do is our planners will get on site and see what the property can support.

We understand there’s funding limitations. And so, the way we kind of… what we do is we prioritize the most effective amenities using our public process.

We know that trails are the most popular amenity in state parks. We’re not going to be able to build cabins and all kinds of facilities in grand numbers.

So, we prioritize the most effective usage based on the funding that we have. We’ll get an opportunity to say, “Here’s what the full development might look like.” But we phase through what we actually develop based on the funding that we have.

And that process happens with our state parks team and our infrastructure team, and also working with some contractors that we may… architects that we may hire as a part of the process as well.

COMMISSIONER ROWLING: When we finish out the four parks that you went through, what do we expect the Centennial Fund balance to be in, whatever that is, three years, when those… or four years when those parks get built out?

MR. FRANKLIN: Yeah, it’s hard to say without having the pro forma right in front of me.

But… and also, the difficulty is we don’t draw out the money we ask for all at once.

We draw it out over time so there’s a balance between what we’re accruing and what we draw out.

But I believe we’re anticipating somewhere around $55 million that based on timing and where we are and how much interest we build after we get through this first few phases of the centennial.

COMMISSIONER ROWLING: $55 million is what?

MR. FRANKLIN: $55 million left in the interest. So, we have… we’re at about $100 million now. We’ll draw, we’ll move back and forth.

COMMISSIONER ROWLING: After all four parks are built there’s going to be a billion… $55 million left?

MR. FRANKLIN: Yes, because I think that’s what we’re saying. And I’m looking at Andrea our Centennial… our Infrastructure Director.

If I misspeak let me know. But just based on the pro forma, again which I don’t have in front of me, I think we’re looking at $55 million?

ANDREA LOFYE: Plus the corpus.

MR. FRANKLIN: Plus the corpus.

COMMISSIONER ROWLING: All right, will y’all send us the kind of sources and uses projected over for these?

MR. FRANKLIN: You bet.

COMMISSIONER ROWLING: Thank you.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: Other questions?

Congratulations.

The opening of these new state parks is truly an exciting process for the state of Texas and for the department, and something that we had not done in many, many years.

And so, it’s gratifying to see. And we’re all excited about it. But we’ve got to control expense expenditures, too, so…

MR. FRANKLIN: 100 percent.

Thank you very much.

We’re excited, too.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: All right, Work Session Item No. 3: Financial Overview. I think you’ve covered some of it. But Mr. Pegues.

MR. PEGUES: Good morning again, Commissioners.

For the record, my name is Reggie Pegues, Chief Financial Officer. And this morning I’ll be presenting the Financial Overview.

I’ll be covering the following items through April: Hunting/fishing licenses revenue, so you’ll get to hear a little bit more of that. State parks revenue and visitation.

Boat related revenues. And I’ll conclude with FY26 budget adjustments through April.

First up is a five-year comparison of license revenue. Revenue remains stable over the five-year period, ranging from $93.3 million to a high of $98.1 million.

After small declines in license year ‘23 and ‘24, revenue rebounded in ‘25 and it strengthened further in ‘26. Overall revenue grew by $1.8 million from license year ‘22 to ‘26, reflecting steady long-term performance.

As we look closer at the most recent years, we saw a notable uptick from ‘25 to ‘26. And on the next slide I’ll go into more of that detail.

And one thing I wanted to point out from the prior presentation.

I mentioned that the Federal Duck Stamp Fund, we don’t receive any funds, but we do receive an admin fee. So the license fee we transfer out. But we do receive a two dollar convenience fee that goes into Fund 9. And those revenue totals are not reflected in the license amounts.

Next is a two-year comparison between ‘25 and ‘26. Starting with the resident fish at the top, there was an increase of $1 million due to the resident year from purchase license that I believe we discussed earlier.

Next, there was an increase in non-resident hunting of $1.7 million.

This is largely due to recent consolidation that eliminated three non-resident hunting licenses that pushed buyers into the two remaining hunting categories.

And I believe Commissioner Doggett, you referenced that type of fact where we eliminate, consolidate, and buyers go to the higher license.

So, this is an example of moving them to a higher license, bringing in additional revenue.

Also, you’ll see one of the components is lifetime license revenue of $1.4 million, as Commissioner[sic] Bonds pointed out.

And as noted, those funds go into a separate account, Lifetime License Account 544, so they’re not part of Fund 9. But there are similar purposes between this account and Fund 9. So, there is some interaction between the two in terms of what can and can’t be used.

And this next slide is…
Based upon the last Commission meeting, there was a question on license detail versus revenue. So, this slide takes the revenue and transfers it over to the actual license sale.

So, you’ll see the actual breakdown.

You see that the majority of the licenses are up in resident fish and combination. The increase of 5.5 percent in resident, that is primarily due to the increase in the resident year from purchase.

Next, we’ll move on to state parks. State parks, we have the five-year comparison. State park revenue remained relatively consistent over the five-year period, ranging from $41.2 million to $43.8 million.

After a dip from FY22 through FY24 revenue began to recover in FY25, and has continued upward in FY26.

Overall revenue decreased slightly compared to FY22, but the recent upward trend shows stabilization and improving performance.

In this next slide, I’ll take a closer look at the explanations.

This slide is a two-year comparison of parks revenue. And again, this park’s revenue goes into State Fund Account 64, primarily for state park purposes.

Beginning at the top.

Entrance fees increased by 2.8 percent, or $321,000, rising from $11.5 million to $11.8 million. This is primarily due to a 31 percent increase in visitation at Palo Duro Canyon.

Next, facilities revenue grew by 3.1 percent, or approximately $527,000, increasing from $17.1 million to $17.6 million. This is due to Indian Lodge being open for the full year after being closed partially for renovations last year.

Moving next to activities and concessions. Saw the strongest group of 14.4 percent, or about $578,000.

Again, this is due to the reopening of Indian Lodge for a total overall increase of $1.2 million, or 3 percent. Visitation remained pretty much flat at less than 1 percent variance for overall and total visits.

Next, we will move over to boat revenues.

Boat revenues show a gradual decline trend over the five-year period, moving from $13.3 million in FY22 to $11.8 million in FY26.

The largest decline occurred between FY23 and ‘24, when revenue dropped from $12.7 million to $11.3 million.

Revenue has however stabilized in FY25 and ‘26, with moderate increases showing signs of leveling out after earlier declines.

This next slide is a two-year comparison of boat revenue. Revenues remained stable at FY26 at $11.8, a slight increase in FY25, showing an overall slight increase of 0.3 percent– so pretty much stable between both years.

Next, I’ll move on to a summary of budget adjustments.

This is a high-level summary of the information included in your monthly budget reports.

At the March Commission meeting the adjusted budget as of February 28, ‘26 was $1.05 billion.

Since then, we’ve had total adjustments of $48.2 million, including $2.7 million in appropriated receipts, about $2 million of that is for donations, $2 million in capital and construction, $39.7 million in federal funds, of which $16.9 million is for sport fish restoration, and $19 million for recreational grants.

Next, we have $2.9 million in operational and non-capital UB. About $2.7 million of that is related to additional sporting goods sales tax that was made available to the agency.

These adjustments bring the adjusted budget as of April 30 to $1.1 billion.

This concludes my presentation, and I’ll be happy to answer any questions.

COMMISSIONER McCALL: Commissioner McCall.

If you could go back, Reggie, the last slide on the hunting slide before you got to the state park. There was something that, yeah, right there.

What is “other,” which had a significant drop?

MR. PEGUES: Oh, yeah, the “other” category, that includes our resident… I’m sorry, commercial license, Big-Tme Texas Hunts.

And the reason for the drop, and I believe this question was asked last go-around, is there was a… this relates to the spotted sea trout tag.

In ‘25 it was sold as a separate item, and in FY26 it was consolidated. So there’s only a drop on paper because now it’s consolidated with another license, but it’s not a real drop. If you take that out, it’s only… it’s a much smaller adjustment.

COMMISSIONER McCALL: Okay.

The… another just thought to throw out there is assuming that we did a 30-day reminder ahead of the license going out, you might consider offering a small discount if it was bought earlier online before it expires.

People will jump all over that. And it’d be, I don’t know, five or seven and a half percent discount, something, that would be a call to action to… for people that are ready to renew but they haven’t renewed yet. And that would maybe incentivize them. I feel like those numbers would go way up.

MR. PEGUES: Yeah, I think we can look into that.

I know there may be some issues with just offering discount on fees.

I’m not too sure. I have to look into that, but that’s definitely something we can review.

COMMISSIONER McCALL: Now, some of the best ideas I’ve ever had have been illegal, so you might want to run that across James on that one.

[ laughter ]

COMMISSIONER TIMMERMAN: Commissioner Timmerman.

If we institute the CPI increase, that may be, along with Dr. McCall’s suggestion, you know, buy your license before the increase, if that’s something we implement.

Eventually, we could, you know, 30 days before, you know, the rates are going to go up, you know, three percent or whatever.

That may be a little incentive to renew early.

MR. PEGUES: Yeah, as Dr. Yoskowitz said in his presentation, I think we’d have to look at the kind of statutory allowances for that. But I think that’s also another thing we’re looking into.

CHAIRMAN FOSTER: All right.