Board hears midyear budget and performance updates; CFO cites healthy fund balance and two-year licensing revenue boost

Jeff Mutter, the board’s chief financial officer, presented the second-quarter budget report and a draft FY27 budget. Mutter said both revenue and expenditures are running with positive variances year to date and attributed a significant revenue increase to the board’s implementation of a two-year licensing-renewal cycle for RLS, PE and firms. The draft budget anticipates modest expenditure increases to fill current vacancies and cover IT and building updates, but projects a healthy fund balance out several years and no immediate fee increases.

Board members asked about a statutory transfer to SDSI (about $373,000); staff said that transfer amount is written into statute and has remained stable, though it could be changed only by the Legislature.

Operations and IT: Director of operations reported an upgrade of the agency’s Microsoft 365 licenses from E3 to E5 to increase security visibility and enable Teams Phone licensing; the agency is completing a required bianual information-security assessment. Staff also described the ELVIS verification automation project intended to streamline interstate and Texas verification requests and reduce manual verification workload.

Performance measures: Licensing and enforcement staff reported midyear statistics: licensing application volume remains high (~5,000 applications/year), average application processing time is approximately 80 days, and exam pass rates (TSSE, FE, PE) align with national rates (TSSE ~45%, FE ~46%, PE ~50%). Enforcement reported 108 new cases and 120 closed in the quarter, with 242 pending at the end of April; continuing-education noncompliance audits are rising modestly.

Why it matters: The combination of revenue effects from a new licensing cycle, staffing vacancies, planned IT improvements, and continuing education compliance trends shape the agency’s capacity to process applications and manage enforcement workload.

What happens next: Staff will return in August with updated year-to-date budget numbers; the ELVIS pilot and security assessment will proceed and staffing/hiring efforts continue.