Workforce Commission Seeks $104M for System Modernization

The Texas Workforce Commission’s (TWC) fiscal year 2028-29 Legislative Appropriations Request (LAR) includes about $205 million in technology-related funding across a systems modernization exceptional item and baseline technology capital categories.

That total includes about $104 million for system modernization or legacy system support, the agency’s only exceptional item marked with an IT component, and about $101 million in baseline technology capital categories.

The systems modernization request is the agency’s top exceptional item and includes projects tied to workforce, unemployment insurance, vocational rehabilitation, data management and agency operations. The largest component is about $38 million to replace unemployment insurance benefits and appeals systems.

TWC says those systems were built in the 1980s and remain critical to benefit payments, appeals and related business functions. The proposed replacement would move the agency toward a modernized benefits and appeals platform.

The exceptional item also includes about $18 million for a Texas Talent Marketplace to replace WorkInTexas. The agency describes the project as a new labor exchange platform that would support job seekers, employers and workforce staff.

Other components include about $13 million for a grant management system, about $9 million for Vocational Rehabilitation ReHabWorks enhancements and about $7 million for unemployment insurance data center consolidation, mainframe and cybersecurity work.

The request also includes about $5 million for enterprise data warehouse enhancements and about $5 million for master data management. TWC is also seeking funding to modernize interactive voice response and automatic call distributor technology, replace the Career Schools and Colleges licensing system, update child labor and labor law systems and use AI for document processing — the LAR specifically cites Google Gemini as an example for this item.

The baseline side of the LAR includes about $101 million in technology capital funding. Data center and shared technology services account for the largest category, at about $74 million across the biennium.

The baseline capital request also includes about $11 million for acquisition of information resource technologies, about $9 million for cybersecurity, about $5 million for legacy modernization and about $2 million for the Centralized Accounting and Payroll/Personnel System.

The acquisition of information resource technologies category includes funding for technology equipment and related operating needs. The cybersecurity category supports agency security work, while the legacy modernization category continues replacement or modernization of older systems.