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Texas Board of Nursing says Operation Nightingale funding included in introduced budget; IT upgrades and fee implications remain under review
Summary
The Texas Board of Nursing told members that the Legislative Budget Board included full funding for Operation Nightingale in the introduced state budget and staff reduced estimated IT project costs after a vendor study; the board will seek an exemption from fee increases tied to one-time IT upgrades and will testify before the Senate Finance Committee on Feb. 13.
The Texas Board of Nursing on Jan. 30 reported that the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) incorporated the agency’s request to continue Operation Nightingale into the state’s introduced budget. Hemet Macon, the board’s director of operations, told members the LBB “wrote in the 100% of the funding request for Operation Nightingale” and fixed a prior technical error that had reduced staffing in the request.
Board staff said that inclusion of Nightingale in the introduced bills (SB1/HB1) removes the need for the board to re-file that exceptional item, though the agency will still have to cover the program’s cost from its own fee revenue. Hemet Macon and executive staff said they will testify before the Senate Finance Committee in mid-February and will provide materials to lawmakers that explain the program and its public-safety rationale.
Separately, the agency reduced its projected cost for a suite of IT projects — a new website, a modernized enforcement system and a program-approval management system — after an RFI and a vendor cost study by Gartner. Macon told the board that the process shaved roughly $880,000 from a previously larger estimate and that the remaining one-time costs total several million dollars.
Because state law ties many regulatory agencies’ expenditures to fee collections, board staff said the board had modeled the potential effect on renewal fees and was asking the Legislature to exempt any required, temporary fee increases to cover one-time IT projects. Macon said previous sessions have granted similar exemptions for agencies with large one-time costs and that the board will press for the same relief this session.
Dr. Kristen Bettin, the board’s executive director, underscored that the board’s revenue projections and fee structure allow the agency to absorb some of the cost but that the exemption would avoid a short-term rise in renewal fees for licensees.
The board’s testimony and materials will be provided to the legislature ahead of the scheduled budget hearing on Feb. 13, when board executives and staff will present a five-minute testimony to Senate Finance and other budget committees.
