• September 5, 2012

State Agencies Undergo Sunset Review Process – Texas Pension Review Board

State Agencies Undergo Sunset Review Process – Texas Pension Review Board

150 150 Elect Todd Hunter

State Agencies Undergo Sunset Review Process – Texas Pension Review Board

Over the past couple of months or so, I have been outlining Texas’ sunset review process. The agencies I have covered so far include the Texas Ethics Commission, the Board of Pardons and Paroles and the Department of Information Resources and many others.  As a reminder, in order to identify and eliminate government waste, duplication and general inefficiencies in state agencies, the Texas Legislature established the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission in 1977.  The sunset review process is designed to review each of these agencies every twelve years. This review is done by taking up a certain number of the state agencies each session when the Texas Legislature convenes.

In last week’s article we examined the Department of Information Resources which is tasked with setting the overall strategic direction for the Texas State agencies’ use and management of their Information Technologies as well as assisting local governments and universities. In this week’s article, we are going to review the Texas Pension Review Board.

The Texas Pension Review Board was established by the Texas Legislature in 1979.  The Texas Legislature formed the Texas Pension Review Board in order to oversight for  the Texas public retirement systems. The Board reviews both state and local government pension retirement systems in respect to their actuarial soundness and compliance with state laws.  The Texas Pension Review Board outlines their mission as follows ” our mission is to provide the State of Texas with the necessary information and recommendations to ensure that our public retirement systems, whose combined assets total in the multi-billions, are financially sound, benefits are equitable, the systems are properly managed, tax expenditures for employee benefits are kept to a minimum while still providing for those employees, and to expand the knowledge and education of administrators, trustees, and members of Texas public pension funds.”

The Texas Pension Review Board is overseen by a nine member board. Seven members of the board are appointed by the Texas Governor, with the advice and consent of the Texas Senate.   The seven members appointed by the Texas Governor must have the following qualifications or experience:

  • three of the board members must have experience in working in securities investment, pension law or pension administration;
  • one needs to be an actuary;
  • one individual who has worked with in governmental finance;
  • one who is a member of one of the public retirement systems and contributes to that system and;
  • one member who is currently receiving benefits from the public retirement system.

The Texas Lieutenant Governor and the Texas Speaker of the House of Representatives is also responsible for appointing one member of the board each.

If you are interested in learning more about the Texas Pension Review Board, you can go to their website at https://www.prb.state.tx.us/.  On their website you can find information relating to the general duties and responsibilities of the board; as well as reports which are provided to the board and cover information regarding pension retirement systems net assets and actuarial sounds along with a number of other reports and other information.

Some of the other agencies we will review in the upcoming weeks include the State Employee Charitable Campaign Policy Committee, Texas Facilities Commission and a number of other agencies currently going through the sunset process.

If you would like to learn more on your own about the Sunset Advisory Commission or other agencies undergoing the sunset review process, you can go to www.sunset.state.tx.us .