The agency that owns and repairs Texas government’s buildings votes Thursday on the budget request it will carry into the next legislative session — one it had to write after the state’s three top officials ordered every agency to cut its baseline by three percent. Anyone wanting to speak must register by 2 p.m. Wednesday.
The Texas Facilities Commission’s problem is arithmetic. Its own master facilities plan put the value of repairs it has not been funded to make at $1.03 billion in 2024 dollars, down from a $1.5 billion peak but still roughly twice what lawmakers have appropriated for the purpose over the past decade. The commission runs on $488.5 million for the current two years, a figure that fell 81 percent from the previous budget when one-time border money ran out. Last cycle it asked for $724 million in extras and got a fraction of it. The July 14 letter from Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Speaker Dustin Burrows tells agencies to put anything above baseline in a separate stack and be ready to name what they would cut to pay for it.
Two blocks north of the Capitol, the commission’s biggest project is finishing. Phase two of the Capitol Complex — two new state office buildings, an underground garage and the last block of the Texas Capitol Mall — topped out a year ago, and the agency’s revised timeline has the buildings done in January and April of next year, with agencies moving in next summer. The commission is scheduled to hear an update Thursday. It also takes up a renovation of the Travis Building, the tower where the Railroad Commission has been holding its meetings on the twelfth floor since January while ground-floor hearing rooms are rebuilt.
Smaller items carry their own signals. The commission votes on a construction contract for a kennel at the state police tactical training center in Florence, on a construction manager for a joint highway department and state police driver license office in the Wharton County community of Pierce, and on a ten-year lease of 600 square feet to a credit union inside one of the new Capitol Complex buildings. Four consent items renew leases for health and human services offices in El Paso, Dallas, Mexia and Houston.
Watch the budget item. What the commission asks for in August is the number legislators start arguing from in January.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 9 a.m. CT Thursday, August 20, 2026. The notice was filed August 11.
- Where
- Central Services Building, 1711 San Jacinto Blvd., Austin.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Facilities Commission — seven seats, three filled by the governor, two by the governor from the speaker’s nominees and two by the lieutenant governor. Brian A. Bailey chairs; one seat is vacant.
- Format
- In person. Speakers must file a public comment card and are held to three minutes; registration closes at 2 p.m. Wednesday, August 19.
- Live video
- Live webcast, which also carries the archive.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · agency agendas and minutes
Commissioners
- Brian A. Bailey, Austin — chairman; Greater Austin Crime Commission member.
- C. Price Wagner, Dallas — vice chairman; wealth management investments leader.
- Robert H. Clay, Houston — development and construction company president.
- JJ Isbell, Pasadena — founder of a petroleum logistics company.
- Daniel “Danny” Signorelli, Houston — real estate development company founder.
- Bob Wetmore, Austin — retired founding partner of an Austin architecture firm.
The roster follows the commission’s own commissioners page. Six of seven seats are filled; the page carries a memorial notice for Commissioner Eddy Betancourt and lists no successor. Vice chairman Price Wagner’s published term ended January 31, 2025 and the page marks him a holdover. The commission does not publish a stated term length, so none is given here. Will McKerall is executive director. Staff contact for this meeting: general counsel Stephen M. Foster, (512) 463-7220.