The two chambers of the Texas Legislature have broken a long stalemate over the appointment of a leader of the Legislative Budget Board, a legislative agency that the Senate leadership had sought to downsize while also purging it of the “influence of liberal bureaucrats.”
Jerry E. McGinty II, Chief Financial Officer at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, will become the next director of the state’s Legislative Budget Board, or LBB, according to a joint statement March 5 from the leaders of the Texas Senate and House of Representatives.
The previous head of the LBB left with former House Speaker Joe Straus, who retired at the end of 2018. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and the new Speaker, Dennis Bonnen, who are co-chairs of the LBB, never agreed on a successor.
Patrick also held up hiring of other staff and failed to respond to requests from agency staff on other key matters, according to an October investigative report, which the lieutenant governor did not deny. The agency lost more than a quarter of its staff from 2015 to 2019, while morale suffered.
Patrick said in an October 2019 statement, “As co-chair of the LBB, I have worked to eliminate the influence of the liberal bureaucrats who were running the LBB when I got there so we can move forward protecting taxpayer dollars.”
He later also wrote in an editorial in the San Antonio Express-News, “While there are many good people who work at the LBB and do their jobs well, in the past, some LBB staff began to push the state budget agency in a liberal direction that did not comport with the vision of the state‘s conservative majority.”
The lieutenant governor faced criticism over his attempts to gut the agency. Ann Beeson, chief executive of the left-wing think tank Center for Public Policy Priorities said, “It’s dangerous and disheartening for this hub of data to have inadequate staffing and low morale.”
New Director’s Background
Jerry McGinty, the new head of the LBB, “brings to the agency an impressive level of budgetary expertise,” said House Speaker Dennis Bonnen in a news release. He noted that McGinty has years of senior-level experience leading a state agency.
The LBB has a critical role in the state appropriations process, oversight of state agencies, and management of state agency fiscal requests during the nearly two-year interim between legislative sessions. It also makes estimates of the cost of proposed legislation.
Patrick added his endorsement too, saying, “Jerry has the management skills and the extensive experience needed to fulfill the LBB’s core mission of serving and advising lawmakers on prudent fiscal options for our state.”
“I believe he will build a dynamic organization that will ensure that our fiscal position remains strong and that taxpayer dollars are managed wisely.”
The statement adds that McGinty has been at TDCJ for 28 years where he has held several positions before becoming Chief Financial Officer, including Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Budget Director, and Senior Budget Analyst.
McGinty holds a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration from Sam Houston State University. He also was a member of the Governor’s Executive Development Program at UT Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs, and the Texas Fiscal Officers’ Academy.
