State agencies and institutes of higher education are asking Texas lawmakers for $24.6 billion in new money during the next two years, according to the Texas Senate’s chief budget writer.
The requests are part of the budget process that begins in earnest after the Legislature convenes Tuesday and typically winds up around May — when lawmakers pass a budget expected to exceed $300 billion for the two-year cycle.
The pleas for new money reflect the evolving functions and purposes of agencies that use state tax dollars to serve Texans, Senate Finance Chair Joan Huffman, R-Houston, said.
“As the state continues to grow and inflation remains an issue, one can expect that agencies may request additional funding to maintain operations,” Huffman said in an email to The Dallas Morning News.
More than half of that nearly $25 billion in requests for 2026-27 came from a dozen of the largest agencies among the more than 100 that submitted proposals.
Coming as the state’s coffers are brimming with more than $20 billion in unspent tax money, the requests lean heavily toward pay raises and new hires for state agencies dealing with high turnover and low pay.
Requests for new money that are not directly related to staffing cover a broad range of needs.
They include hardening election systems against cyber threats, replacing vehicles at the transportation department, maintaining contracts, expanding and repairing buildings, upgrading park surveillance equipment, funding new mental health programs, expanding beach preservation projects and reducing wait times at the driver’s license and Medicaid offices.
Texas Health and Human Services faced strong criticism over the past year as low-income Texans reported monthslong wait times to be enrolled in emergency food programs and Medicaid, even as the agency was cutting more than 2 million pandemic-era recipients from benefits rolls — including some who shouldn’t have been dropped. The agency has been under a federal corrective action plan for the past four years for failing to meet U.S. standards for food benefit response times.
The agency wants $300 million to revamp the enrollment system for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps — a welcome proposal for health advocates who said the process for dropping people from benefits rolls exposed critical problems with the way low-income Texans are brought into the state’s social safety net.
In mid-December, 61 groups sent a letter to the Legislature supporting Texas Health and Human Services’ request to fix the Medicaid enrollment system.
“We’re excited to see the momentum for investing in modern technology at HHSC,” said Peter Clark, spokesperson for Texans Care for Children, which advocates for services for children and families. “This is a chance to finally bring the state’s SNAP and Medicaid enrollment system into the 21st century so it actually functions properly for families.”
With Texas ranking among the nation’s top targets for cyber attacks, hardening infrastructure and increasing the cybersecurity of data systems is another undercurrent in major agencies’ requests.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which oversees the state’s water supply and natural resources, is requesting about $18 million to upgrade cybersecurity systems, while the Texas secretary of state’s office wants to double the size of its three-person security team.
The Juvenile Justice Department is looking for $960,000 to “constantly enhance” the agency’s security profile through “continued research and support.”
“The state of Texas agencies, including TJJD, are both constantly being threatened by cyber criminals and worldwide threat actors to capture data to create political instability or as a money-making effort as a result of ransomware attacks,” according to the request. “Every day new threats are created.”
The agency overseeing the state’s cybersecurity strategy, the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR), is seeking $60 million in new money, part of which would add 49 full-time employees to meet demands from agencies that increasingly rely on technology and need help managing potential threats, according to the agency’s request.
The agency’s role came under the microscope last session when hackers used duplicated driver’s licenses from a secure state-run website to steal money in a multistate scheme.
DIR also wants to build on critical services that shield state agencies from cyber threats. That includes strengthening threat detection and response for computers and networks, identifying vulnerabilities through external security scans, and issuing secure login keys, according to the agency’s budget request.
“Texas public entities are alluring targets for cyber threat actors who are using increasingly sophisticated tactics, techniques, and procedures; never-before-seen tools; and exploitative technologies,” reads the agency’s State of Texas Cybersecurity Strategic Plan 2024-2028.
“As we increasingly rely on digital systems and interconnected technologies, the opportunity for attack increases, presenting cyber threat actors with ample opportunity to exploit both known and unprecedented vulnerabilities,” the report said.
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Texas Agencies Request Billions in 2026-27 Budget
Coming as the state’s coffers are brimming with more than $20 billion in unspent tax money, the requests lean heavily toward pay raises and new hires for state agencies dealing with high turnover and low pay.
