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The funding for the CHL program at to be at least revenue neutral (no profit or loss to the State) or revenue positive (profit) from the beginning. The fees were set high enough at the beginning that the state made money on the program, but the money doesn't go to DPS. It goes in to the general fund. With the various fee reductions now it's probably much closer to revenue neutral.

Chas.

Jim:
I don't know what the budget it and I have to admit that I don't know anything about the budgeting process. I believe the budget is for all of DPS and not by dept. I say that because the question was asked "how can we be sure any additional funding will be used for this purpose?" I'm not sure there was a definite answer.

Chas.

I have copied Alice Tripps's report on the meeting with DPS personnel on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 below. I was not in attendance at this meeting, but I was briefed on it immediately after it was concluded.

Yesterday, April 16th, Chairman Joe Driver of House Law Enforcement Committee asked DPS to a meeting regarding complaints from Texas CHL licenses and renewals that licenses are running well beyond the length of time listed in statute.

TSRA collected information over the weekend from members responding to an email alert sent out on Friday. A large number of responses supported the problem.

Information gathered went well beyond finger print problems. Most of these folks had returned perfect packages to DPS and were running as much as 100+ days. The time allowed for a renewal is 45 days and original applications have 60 days.

Jan Coffey, Valerie Fulmer, and Chief Burton Christian represented DPS. Chief Burton was the highest ranking DPS person attending.

Former Senator Ken Armbrister attended at Chairman Driver's invitation. Ken Armbrister is currently Governor Perry's Legislative Director.

In December 2007 a large and unexpected spike occurred in new CHL applicants. The bottle neck was blamed on this sudden surge in applications plus a litany other problems: 5 data processing jobs unfilled, flawed licenses due to a new license fabrication process, fewer applications on line than expected causing more data entry by staff, finger print rejects, incomplete packages returned, etc.

TSRA brought up the fact that we have this meeting with DPS on late CHL applications every two years and asked what could be done to help the situation so it would not happen in the future.

We were told that currently 25% of the all applications and renewals with perfect packages (good pictures, good finger prints, and everything correct) are running beyond statute.

It appears that the entire DPS process is broken at least for now. By this we mean, there is something wrong at every step.

The universal complaint from DPS, which may be justified, was more money and authorization to hire more employees. They have added 12 temps to the 40 full time employees working only on CHLs. We were also told the number of employees has not increased since the beginning of the program in 1996.

For now, Chairman Driver will be receiving a weekly status report on the CHL backlog problem.

We appreciate Rep. Joe Driver and his staff taking the lead on this problem and for Ken Armbrister gathering information for Governor Perry.

The problems noted in Alice's report deal primarily with staffing and this is a problem that requires a legislative fix. Since this can't happen before the 2009 legislative session, and since it's a budget issue, there is no reason to expect improvement before Sept. 2009 at the earliest.

So what can we do in the interim? Here are some suggestions:

1. Use the on-line application process for both initial and renewal CHL applications. This will dramatically cut the amount of data entry by DPS;

2. Use digital fingerprints, if possible. This may not be practical for some people, due to location and time constraints, but if you can submit digital prints, then this greatly reduces the chance of the FBI rejecting prints;

3. On renewals, be sure to start the process as soon as you get your renewal notice; i.e. 6 months before expiration;

4. Triple check your application packet to be sure you haven't missed anything! (The CHL check list here on the forum is a good resource.)

I realize this is not the answer anyone wanted to hear; me included. However, this is the reality of the situation and nothing is going to change until the legislature fixes it. In addition to funding and personnel, I have some ideas to greatly streamline the process for CHLs and the DPS and it will reduce DPS' workload, but this too will require legislative action.

I want to echo Alice's comments and express my appreciation to Chairman Joe Driver and Governor Perry for taking an interest in this problem. Chairman Driver is rated A+ by TSRA, as was former Senator Ken Armbrister, Gov. Perry's Legislative Director. The fact that Chairman Driver arranged this meeting and is going to be getting weekly progress reports shows that he is taking CHL complaints seriously and is doing what he can to address the problem, within the current statute. Sending his Legislative Director to the meeting, thereby showing the DPS that the Governor is concerned, also proves that Governor Perry is continuing his long-standing support of CHLs.

I don't like being told to be patient; I like having to say that to others even less. Legislative remedies are already being drafted and you can rest assured that TSRA, the NRA, Governor Perry and our friends in the Texas House and Texas Senate will make this a priority issue in 2009. You also have my commitment to make this a personal priority item in the 2009 Legislative Agenda.

Chas.

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