The board that governs the Texas Department of Information Resources will meet Aug. 27 to approve the agency’s 2027 budget and the fees it charges — but the item is written to take effect only if state budget writers let the agency carry over money left in its Texas.gov accounts at the end of this year.
That conditional matters more than it sounds. The department buys technology in bulk and resells it to state agencies, universities, school districts, cities and counties, and it pays for itself out of the fees it adds to those purchases rather than out of general revenue. It sets those fees once a year for three separate lines of business: the cooperative contracts it negotiates for everyone else to buy from, the state’s telephone and network services, and its data centers. The Legislature has capped the cooperative contracts fee at 2 percent since the 2004-05 budget. The agency’s stated aim is to set the fees high enough to cover its costs and no higher.
Texas.gov is the portal Texans use to renew a vehicle registration or pay a state fee, and the department runs it. The notice says the 2027 budget and fee schedule depend on the Legislative Budget Board agreeing to let unspent Texas.gov balances roll forward from 2026. If that approval does not come, the fee figures the board adopts Aug. 27 would have to be reworked.
Also on the agenda: proposed amendments to the rules that tell every state agency how to plan and manage its technology, which the board would send to the Texas Register to open a public comment period. Members vote on three purchases, including a change to the contract for running the internet-calling platform behind the Capitol Complex phone system, which serves roughly 90 Austin-area state agencies and both houses of the Legislature. Staff also give updates on information security, data and artificial intelligence. Public testimony is taken near the end.
This is the board’s first meeting since May 21, and the first full budget cycle under Tony Sauerhoff, whom the board made permanent executive director and state chief information officer in March. Watch whether the rule amendments go out for comment as presented.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 10 a.m. CT Thursday, August 27, 2026. The notice was filed August 19.
- Where
- William P. Clements Building, 300 W. 15th St., Room 103, Austin.
- Governing body & chair
- Department of Information Resources governing board — six appointed members and four ex officio members drawn from state agencies and a university system. Ben Gatzke, chair. Tony Sauerhoff is executive director and state chief information officer.
- Format
- In person, with a Zoom webinar that requires advance registration. Witnesses register at the start; public testimony is taken before adjournment.
- Live video
- Zoom webinar registration
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · DIR governing board
Board members
- Ben Gatzke — chair; Fort Worth; president and chief executive, BorrowWorks.
- Jeffrey W. Allison — Houston; chief executive, Monument Energy.
- Walter “Frank” Coppersmith III — Round Rock; chief executive, Smarter Reality.
- Christopher “Stephen” Franke — Dallas; vice president, C1 Insurance Group.
- Jeffrey Tayon — Houston; independent investor.
- Keri Pearlson — Austin; principal research scientist at MIT.
- Ex officio: Daniel Avitia Jr., executive director, Texas Department of Motor Vehicles.
- Ex officio: Andrew Friedrichs, executive director, governor’s Public Safety Office.
- Ex officio: Keith Halman, chief information officer, Texas Tech University System.
- Ex officio: Sylvia Hernandez Kauffman, chief information officer, Health and Human Services.
Roster from the agency’s governing board page, read August 20, 2026, and cross-checked against the governor’s appointment release for Keri Pearlson. The page does not say whether the ex officio members vote, and this article does not characterize that. Meeting contact: gloria.cervantes@dir.texas.gov.