The seven-member board that borrows money on behalf of the rest of Texas state government meets Friday morning in a work session, and the only substantive item is its own budget request for 2028 and 2029.
The Texas Public Finance Authority is the state’s central bond bank. Rather than have every agency run its own borrowing operation, the Legislature created one in 1984 to sell bonds for them — for prisons and parks, for state office buildings, for the cancer research institute, for the schools for the deaf and for the blind, and for a handful of universities. Before it can borrow to put up a building, lawmakers must first have authorized that specific project and its cost. As of the end of February the authority had about $4.1 billion in bonds and commercial paper outstanding, against total state debt of $77 billion.
It does that with almost no one. The authority’s own operating budget for this year runs to about $2.4 million from all sources, with a cap of 17 positions and roughly 14 of them filled. That is the number the board trims Friday: Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows told agencies in mid-July to build their 2028-29 requests 3 percent below current spending, with schools, Medicaid and a short list of other programs exempt. Agencies may still attach requests above that floor as separate items. The board took a staff briefing on the request at its July 9 meeting; Friday is the follow-through.
Recent work gives a sense of the traffic. At that July meeting the board took up general obligation debt for the cancer institute in 2027, a taxable refunding of state general obligation bonds, refinancing of short-term paper issued for the state’s facilities agency, revised debt management guidelines and appointments to the nonprofit it created to finance charter school buildings. It also approved bonds this year for the loan program that lends to communities around military installations.
The board approves minutes of that July meeting Friday; they have not been posted. Its agendas carry no public comment item and it does not stream. What to watch is whether the request the board sends forward stops at the reduced number.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 10:30 a.m. CT Friday, August 14, 2026. The notice was filed August 6.
- Where
- William P. Clements Jr. Building, 300 W. 15th St., Room 411, Austin. The room moves between meetings.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Public Finance Authority — seven governor-appointed members. Billy M. Atkinson Jr. chairs. No seats are vacant.
- Format
- Work session. Members may join by videoconference, with the presiding member physically present. The agenda has no public comment item; the board may close any part of the meeting the open meetings law allows.
- Live video
- None advertised. The authority posts agendas and minutes as documents.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · Board agenda (PDF)
Board members
- Billy M. Atkinson Jr. — chair; term expires February 1, 2029.
- Ramon Manning — vice chair; term expires February 1, 2027.
- Jay A. Riskind — secretary; term expires February 1, 2029.
- Larry G. Holt — term expires February 1, 2027.
- Lance S. Etcheverry — founder, Flat Creek Capital Management.
- Shanda G. Perkins, Burleson — mortgage claims manager; former banker.
- Benjamin E. Streusand — president, Remington Bridge Capital.
Names and officer titles are printed on the authority’s own meeting notice; it publishes no cities or occupations for four of the seven, so none are given here. Government Code §1232.052 sets the seven seats and bars anyone who works for or owns a large share of a business receiving the authority’s money. Etcheverry, Perkins and Streusand were reappointed in April 2026 to terms running to 2031; the agency’s own board page has not been updated to show it. Executive director: Lee Deviney. Staff contact: Kendrick Downs, (512) 463-5544.