During Texas Governor George W. Bush's term, the Budget and Planning Office advised the Governor regarding state fiscal matters, prepared the Governor's biennial budget recommendations to the Legislature, monitored state appropriations and operations, analyzed fiscal and economic issues, and performed other duties determined by the Governor. Administrative correspondence, budget development files, statewide cost allocation plans, Grants Team records, and publications were created and/or maintained by the Budget and Planning Office in the course of developing and carrying out budgets and plans for funding Texas state government during the terms of Texas Governor George W. Bush. Types of materials include correspondence, memoranda, tracking slips, reports, statements, plans, proposals, manuals, opinions, printed material, legal documents, questionnaires, contracts, organization charts, notes, publications, memoranda of agreement, executive orders, bylaws, policies and procedures, drafts, budgets, legislative records, speeches, clippings, 3.5-inch floppy disks, and audiocassette tapes, dating 1967 to 2000 and undated, bulk 1990 to 2000, created and/or maintained by the Texas Governor's Budget and Planning Office during the terms of George W. Bush. Albert Hawkins was the Director of the Budget and Planning Office during Bush's terms in office. "Administrative correspondence" comprise the Budget and Planning Office "central files" and contain predominantly incoming and outgoing letters and memoranda that passed between the Budget and Planning staff and various other staff members in the Governor's Office, state agencies, federal agencies, corporations and consultants, state legislators and members of Congress, and various public officials. The subjects of the correspondence concern the development of the state budget and the financial needs and plans of Texas agencies and other state funded institutions, including appropriations, exempt salary issues, consultant contracts pursuant to Wagner-Peyser 7(b) allocations (a program providing employment-related services to veterans), emergency grants, applications for federal funds, allocation of additional full-time, part-time, and temporary employees, receipt of grant funds and other payments from federal bodies, Year 2000 transition costs, and disaster funding. General subjects include welfare to work, tax reform, the funding of public education and distressed communities, and managed care. A few memoranda concern internal Budget and Planning Office polices. Records found in the "State budget development files" aid in documenting the development of the Texas state budget and were submitted by various state agencies to fulfill the reporting requirements of the General Appropriations Acts (House Bills 1) of the 74th and 75th Legislatures. The materials specifically concern, and can include copies of, rules review plans, biennial operating plans, capital acquisition statements and requests, salary level information, fee and tax collection income reports, cost containment reports, position classification statements, exceptional item funding requests, employee bonuses in return for Year 2000 conversion activities, service and population category information, contract approval requests, lawsuit notifications, and various other subjects. Correspondence is frequently addressed to Albert Hawkins, but was logged and handled by the office staff, as indicated by the logging/tracking forms attached to the letters. The role of the Legislative Budget Board in the budget development process can be discerned in some of the materials. A few documents concerning agency exempt salary plans date from the term of Texas Governor Ann Richards and were written by Dale Craymer, her Director of Budget and Planning. Records in the "Statewide cost allocation plans" series concern the creation of plans that track the state's indirect costs and the recovery of those costs for the purpose of satisfying federal grant guidelines. The cost allocation plans were prepared by David M. Griffith & Associates, LTD and by KPMG Peat Marwick. Additional training materials, manuals, and proposals were submitted by David M. Griffith & Associates, LTD. Correspondence and attachments concern the plans and particularly involve communications with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the agency designated by OMB (U.S. Office of Management and Budget) as the cognizant agency responsible for negotiating indirect, fringe benefit (and other specialty) rates and issuing related rate agreements for a significant number of organizations receiving federal awards. Budget and Planning Office Grant's Team staff member Tom Adams figures prominently in the majority of the correspondence. Major subjects of concern in the records center around costs that the federal government disallowed, particularly charges regarding the Capitol Complex Telephone System and the Uniform Group Insurance Program (UGIP). Some of the materials date from the terms of Texas Governors William P. Clements and Ann Richards and involve Budget and Planning Directors Sheila Beckett and Dale Craymer. "Property tax relief records" are written testimony, public testimony registration cards, sign-in sheets, audiocassette tapes ofpublic hearings, and correspondence, 1976 to 1996, bulk 1996, created, received, or maintained by the Governor's Office of Budget and Planning, which provided administrative support to the Citizen's Committee on Property Tax Relief. The committee was created by Texas Governor George W. Bush to explore ways to reduce property taxes. The Staff Work Group on Property Tax Relief, composed of designees of Governor bush, Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock, House Speaker Pete Laney, and Comptroller John Sharp, was created to develop possible replacements for the school property tax without providing recommendations. Registration cards include the names of individuals testifying at hearings held by the citizen's committee, title and address of those testifying, who they represent, and the location of the public hearing. Hearings were held in Amarillo, Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Harlingen, Houston, Lubbock, San Antonio, Tyler, and Wichita Falls. Testimony was presented by state officials; former state officials; representatives of organizations, businesses, and agriculture; and home owners, including those on fixed incomes. Correspondence was sent by individuals unable to attend the hearings. The Grants Team monitors the federal, state, and private funding information resources and alerts state legislators, state agencies, non-profit organizations, all subdivisions of government and individuals to funding opportunities. "Records of the Grants Team" include correspondence, memoranda, letters and memoranda of agreement, grant reference materials, casework, executive orders, strategic plans, evaluations, reports, publications, bylaws, policies and procedures, manuals, printed materials, calendars, drafts, budgets, performance measures, legislative records, speeches, opinions, clippings, web page printouts, forms, organization charts, mailing lists, notes, telephone directories, travel and purchase records, and 3.5-inch floppy disks that date 1967 to 2000 and were maintained by the Grants Team in the Texas Office of the Governor's Budget and Planning Office during the tenure of George W. Bush. "Grants Team records of assistance to regional planning commissions," dating 1967 to 1999, document the activities of the administrations of all Texas governors from John Connally to George W. Bush in the origination, development, and functioning of Texas' regional assistance funding program and regional planning commissions. Staff member Tom Adams figures prominently in the records from the 1990s. Initial records contain founding executive orders and governing legislation, Attorney General opinions, speeches, early policies and procedures, proposals, rationales, and reports concerning the regional council/commission system and its relationship to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 701 program. The redelineation files concern the biennial reviews, beginning in 1971, of state planning region boundaries by the Governor's Office. The general files contain information about all of the regional planning councils, such as funding allocation formulas, general correspondence, requests for project funds, and the 1996 quarterly/annual reports for all of the councils. The final section of records consists of files for each of the individual planning councils. The files generally include reports, correspondence, and other information submitted to enable the councils to receive state planning assistance funds. "Denise Francis' files" cover a wide range of subjects handled as head of the Grants Team. "Staff casework records" respond to requests for assistance in locating and obtaining grant funds."Training files" document workshops presented by Grants Team staff around Texas from 1998 to 2000. "Agency strategic plans and reports," 1995-1996, seem to have been submitted in 1996 in accordance with the responsibility of the Texas Governor's Budget and Planning office's Grants Team to collect and analyze performance data from state agencies on maximizing federal funds. The records of the Budget and Planning Office include eight publications maintained in that office during the terms of George W. Bush. The publications concern proposed Texas state budgets, a budget policy message to the 74th Legislature in the form of a published speech, statewide strategic planning elements from 1998 and 2000, and property tax relief.
