Request for Co-Sponsors: Budget & Authorization Amendment

[Anastasia Wilford]

I am seeking co-sponsors for a motion to amend LPTexas 2025 Budget as follows:

Reduce the line item for Legislative Headquarters from $18,000 to $10,000 (the Hasketts reduced the amount they were asking for renting their house over the legislative session)
Increase the line item for Analysis & Support from $1,000 to $5,000.

Budget/Authorization as it currently stands:

Budget/Authorization as it would be if this motion passes:

 

[Jacob Bradley]

I will cosponsor

 

[Matthew Gibbs]

I will co-sponsor

 

[Amanda Gibbs]

I will Co-sponsor.

 

[Austen Hoogen]

I will co-sponsor

 

[Andrew Amelang]

That's enough for a vote. I have two conference calls and then I'll put up a vote later this afternoon.

 

[Joe Burnes]

In doing the quarterly books, I've been struggling to get an accurate budget given how many motions have taken place and the math of them not adding up clearly. The first screenshot shown here that has both the HQ and Staff Compensation line items at 18k appears to be from the original approved 2025 budget from the last meeting of 2024. However, a motion was made at the 2/1/25 meeting that added 5k to both those line items (even though the motion did not authorize expenditure). IF that motion passed (as the minutes appear to confirm), then THIS motion was misstated as reducing HQ from 18k to 10k as it would have been reducing that amount from 23k to 10k. What I need to know is....does the passage of this motion definitively mean that HQ became 10k at the end of it and that analytics and support became 5k...AND that authorization was approved as well (the wording only really mentions authorization in the headings and does not appear to directly authorize the expenditure). @Andrew Amelang please weigh in here.

 

[Anastasia Wilford]

So when the budget was presented and passed at the November meeting, the Legislative Action Department had $2,000 budgeted to come from the General Fund and the rest to come from the Legislative Action Fund.

At the February meeting, I made a motion asking for SLEC to authorize spending $5,000 each from the General Fund for Staff Compensation and Legislative Headquarters. So that motion did nothing to change the overall amount budgeted, but only changed the source of the funding (with an amendment about the order in which the fund were to be spent).

So as of the close of the February meeting, the values for each of the line items for the Legislative Action Department had not changed from the original amounts adopted at the November meeting.

The motion in this thread changed the amounts of the line items such that Analysis and Support was increased by $4,000 and Legislative Headquarters was reduced by $8,000 resulting in the new budget amounts, but changing nothing about the sources of the funding.

The motion you recommended in our email chain that either has just passed or will be passing in a few hours, changed the amounts of the line items to decrease Staff Compensation by $3,000 and increase Legislative Headquarters by $2,0000 (after learning about the additional headquarters expense of utilities). So The final result of all of those motions would look like:

Between the discussions at the meeting and the original motion, it would be my interpretation that the spending has been authorized, we are just changing amounts, and considering the conversation around the accompanying motions discussed some of the actual expenses to be made if the motions passed that the intent of the body was to authorize those amounts. But as you said, it's ultimately the Chair's ruling.

 

[Andrew Amelang]

My interpretation is that the motion and related discussion were about changing amounts that had been previously budgeted and authorized, and that changing the amounts merely changed the amounts (that had already been budgeted and authorized), and had no affect on the ‘legal status’, so to speak, of those numbers.

I’ll have more to say about our budget/authorization process at the meeting.

 

[Joe Burnes]

My interpretation is that the motion and related discussion were about changing amounts that had been previously budgeted and authorized, and that changing the amounts merely changed the amounts (that had already been budgeted and authorized), and had no affect on the ‘legal status’, so to speak, of those numbers.

I’ll have more to say about our budget/authorization process at the meeting.

At this point, I simply need to know what the actual numbers are AND where specifically the monies are to come from. The motion made at the Feb meeting did not look like it was authorizing more monies to be spent from the general fund if the leg action fund ran out. Per the minutes, the motion with amendment that passed says:
Motion to amend by John Wilford to read: Be it moved that the LPTexas 2025 Budget be
amended to add $5,000 to the line item titled “Staff Compensation” and $5,000 to the line
item titled “Legislative Headquarters”. We will first spend monies from directed donations
before touching general funds. We will increase the reserve funds from $5000 back to
$10,000.
I would agree with Ana's numbers posted above (5, 16, 12, 1). My concern is that I do not appear to have the authority to spend money out of the general fund on the 2 line items that were initially approved in the budget to come from the leg act fund account. I need to have a solid answer to this to be able to complete the books as I have to transfer funds between accounts to ensure expenses are paid out of the correct accounts. As long as there is enough money in the leg act fund account to cover any associated expenses, this is a moot point, but I can't be sure of that at this time.