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Secretary of State presses Legislature for staff, new website and records digitization
Summary
Secretary of State Jane Nelson told the Senate Finance Committee the office needs additional full‑time staff, a modern website and funds to digitize decades of paper records to keep up with rising business filings and election responsibilities.
AUSTIN — Secretary of State Jane Nelson urged the Senate Finance Committee on Feb. 11 to approve new staff, a website overhaul and records digitization to keep pace with surging demand for business filings and to support elections administration.
Nelson told senators the agency handled roughly 12 million customer interactions a year in its business filings division and said staffing has not kept up with that growth. "We have to have more staff and we have to have a place to put them," she said, adding that she had pared requests to what the agency considers necessary, not what divisions wanted.
The Legislative Budget Board presentation identified a roughly $40.3 million reduction in the agency's appropriation recommendation, while the agency listed several "exceptional items" in its budget request. LBB analyst George Purcell described two major funding changes in the recommendation: moving HAVA drawdowns and replacing one‑time funding for a business transaction system.
Nelson and Deputy Secretary Dave Nelson described four exceptional items the agency had sought: election security positions and operational funding; staffing to keep Texas competitive for business filings and professional services; $6.9 million to digitize and preserve records that occupy large portions of the Rudder Building; and $8.2 million in IT items such as a data dashboard and redaction tools.
On the agency website, Nelson described the state site as being built on an HTML platform from 2002 and cited both user frustration and added call‑center workload as reasons to replace it. "A new website will help us improve the user experience and make it easier for customers to navigate our services," she said.
Senators asked about specific programs: elections director Christina Adkins confirmed the office still conducts cross‑check/list‑maintenance activities for voter registrations and that some funding previously shown as a standalone item had been rolled into the agency's base budget. Adkins said the office continues to bring additional data sources online and provides counties with matches; counties decide how to act on the matches.
Nelson said an appropriation to renovate the James Earl Rudder State Office Building (the Rudder Building) was included in the base bill and that digitization of records would both preserve materials and free workspace. Deputy Secretary Nelson said the LBB had identified a vendor bid and estimated digitization could be completed in months once funded.
The committee pressed for follow‑up on several points including security and seat planning for additional positions. Senators also discussed the interaction between state and county roles in voter‑roll maintenance. The office did not present or record any formal committee votes during this hearing.
The Secretary of State's requests will move forward in budget negotiations in the coming weeks as the Senate and House reconcile agency priorities.
