3. Follow the Money
Appropriation of $138.2 billion:
Education: 40%
Health and human services: 35%
Business development: 14%
Public safety/criminal justice: 6%
Other: 6%
4. Role of State Agencies
Over 200 boards, commissions, and
departments implement state laws and
programs
Created by Texas Constitution and/or the
legislature
Having many agencies decentralizes power
Power within the agencies will keep out party
politics
Difficult to hold agencies accountable
5. Bureaucratic Accountability
Bureaucracy is part of the executive but
is more responsive to the legislature
Power of the purse
Sunset review process
Sunset Advisory Commission
Every 12 years, agencies are reviewed and
studied, the legislature then decides whether to
abolish, merge, or retain it
Legislators don’t always use their oversight
rationally or efficiently
6. Interest groups and lobbyists influence agencies
as well
Revolving Door: offering employment to public
servants who worked for agencies regulating
Better pay, jobs for retired/losing public officials,
they have expertise
Iron Triangle: Agencies, lobbyists, and
legislators have a very close relationship
Capture Theory: regulatory agencies create and
enforce rules that favor the industry that they
are meant to regulate
***Are they really public servants?
