Last session several Sunset bills became vehicles for other legislation, and many of those bills died. You said at the Sunset Advisory Commission’s first meeting Nov. 17 that the basic question is, "What is the role of Sunset?" How would you answer that question?

Hegar: … I think that there is a greater need right now to make sure we as a Legislature, as in 181 members — and I want to make that very, very clear, not 10 legislators and two public members sitting on the commission, I’m talking about the members of the State Legislature — [decide] how we handle Sunset bills. Not just through the commission’s work but then through the committee process, then through the floor debates, across the rotunda and go again.

Because last session, for the first time ever, we did not pass a Sunset review [safety net] bill, and we had to come back in a special session. That has never happened in Texas history. … What can we do to prevent that from happening again? We need to get more breathing room in between the time Sunset bills are supposed to pass and the Sunset review bill … They can’t [pass and finish at the same time]. So you really need to move these bills up a little bit so you know what you need to put in the review cycle. So therefore I think that brings in the discussion: How do we better manage this for the whole legislature, and for the people of the state of Texas? …

Obviously the role of Sunset as it was laid out in the Legislature and continued over time, has really been looking at the organization, structure and management of state agencies. It has not been in the past for the creation of new programs, for an influx of new dollars to triple-quadruple the size of programs. Has it been to highlight needs in state agencies that the Legislature has not focused on before, through whatever variations of reasons? …

For example, I’ll take the [Department of Public Safety] and [the Texas Department of Transportation]. As we were looking for reorganization of those agencies to create better services for the people they’re supposed to serve, that may then beg the question: Does the agency need new technology the way it communicates with each other, the way it communicates with the public, the way our troopers communicate in the cars?

If so, then that doesn’t mean that Sunset’s role is to say, "Oh, let’s have an appropriation." No, that’s an appropriation finance process. But it can shed a brighter light to say, "Look, if we want this agency to function better, more efficient, more effectively, within its organization, structure, and management, we’ve got to solve this problem." I mean if they’ve got 1980 computers, we’ve got to solve this problem.

… Even though you talk about organization, structure, and management of state agencies, one question is, do they need to exist? If they do need to exist, then within what form or fashion within that framework? … There is some shade of gray, but that’s the role of the legislative process to figure those out.

Hegar: No. 1, I want the Sunset review to be a very open process. Obviously the commission members [need] to get into working into the details of the Sunset review process. You look at the Commission and you’ve got a wealth of knowledge. And you got a lot of really good members, and [I want to] make sure that they play a pivotal role in that, through the review process and also during the legislative process when that begins in 2011. The public [needs] to feel like it has a say in the Sunset review process. [I want] to also hopefully make sure that our colleagues, the other 171 members of the state Legislature, have input into the process. …

So make it open, make sure it’s very transparent, make sure we’re vetting as many issues as possible.

But with that being said, this process is not to create new government programs. It’s not.

And we have a budget issue next session.

Hegar: I think as much as ever before, we really have to focus on the efficiency and the effectiveness of these state agencies, knowing that we have a large budget deficit next session. In my opinion, whether we have a deficit or not, you need to really focus on how you improve a state agency for the people they serve, but knowing what’s coming up in the next session, it even highlights the importance of making sure that an agency is run as efficiently as possible. And sometimes that means making tough decisions [regarding] cost-effectiveness. And sometimes it means we’re spending dollars to update computer systems … [which] create long-term cost savings. So I think you have to do the analysis on both ends.

… I want to allow the Sunset staff to do their job, and that means to get into the inner workings of agencies, and to start identifying issues. Now myself or other members of the commission as well as members of the Legislature or the public during public hearings have free opportunity to bring any issue up.

For any of the state agencies that are under review, I do not have a set list of issues that I want to begin working on. There’s not necessarily a list. My job is more as to how do we steer the ship and manage the process than to come in with an agenda.

Hegar: … No. 1: If we as a legislature seemed united on making changes to a state agency, and they have the ability to make those changes without a statutory change, then it is our role to continue to monitor and make sure they are doing those well. TxDOT is doing several of those, for example. We can take [the Texas Youth Commission], [the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission]; we did pass legislation, so we will be monitoring how they implement that legislation.

Now with that focused or limited review, to me, it is not opening the whole review back up so staff spends countless hours because they’ve already been through [TxDOT, TDI, TYC and TJPC]. There’s no sense for them to sit down and have the same entrance and exit reviews with all these different staffers, because they just did this two years ago.

Yet if there is an issue that comes up with these state agencies that we need to look at and address further in depth, that maybe we didn’t see coming, then we need to do that. So if God forbid there’s some financial problem, or some type of scandal situation for lack of better words, then that needs to be a focal point. …

Hegar: I think when you go through the legislative process, you’re always going to have that discussion. … Part of the Sunset review process last time was that if in 2003 the Legislature wanted to move to a more file-and-use system, then what we have today in Texas is not file and use.

… So how do we change to make the system more efficient, more effective, within the organization, structure, and management of this state agency? That’s what we were truly trying to accomplish to provide more certainty to consumers and to those that are insuring them, and the regulatory system — the three prongs of the stool, so to say.

So legislatively, yes, I have no doubt that discussion will occur. Will it occur during the Sunset process? I would imagine that Sunset staff will re-review the issue, and members of the commission, I haven’t asked them or polled them on how their feelings are. To me, they’ll make their feelings known to Sunset staff. Sunset staff will issue a report [March 1, 2010], we’ll have a hearing [April 6, 2010], and we’ll gauge how everybody’s sentiments are at that time.

Hegar: No I don’t. I think every legislative session — I’ve only been through four regular sessions — but every legislative session has what I’d like to say is a personality of its own. And so, with that being said, the TxDOT discussions and debates on the House and the Senate side, I firmly believe will be very different than they were this last go-round. Some of the bills that were discussed as being part of the Sunset process of TxDOT, those are in legislation. You know, a separate Department of Motor Vehicles. That passed. That’s in law, so there’s nothing to discuss on that. Now if there’s something to discuss as far as monitoring the implementation of that, absolutely, 100 percent yes. But with that being said, that whole section of the Sunset process is taken out, and that whole debate will not even occur.

So do I see a replay of the whole last session? No, none whatsoever.

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