The Texas Workforce Commission wants state lawmakers to pay for replacing the computer systems that handle unemployment benefits and appeals, which the agency says date to the 1980s.
The request is part of the commission's Legislative Appropriations Request for the 2028-29 budget period, GovTech's Texas Insider reported Tuesday.
The modernization package
The commission's top extra funding request, separate from its baseline budget, is about $104 million for system modernization and support for aging systems. According to the report, that includes:
- About $38 million to replace the unemployment insurance benefits and appeals systems, which the agency describes as still critical to paying benefits and handling appeals.
- About $18 million for a new job-matching platform called the Texas Talent Marketplace, which would replace WorkInTexas, the state's current site for job seekers and employers.
- About $13 million for a grant management system and about $9 million for improvements to ReHabWorks, used by the vocational rehabilitation program.
- About $7 million to consolidate unemployment insurance data center work and for mainframe and cybersecurity needs.
- About $5 million each for enterprise data warehouse upgrades and master data management.
The package also covers new phone and call-routing technology, a replacement for the licensing system for career schools and colleges, updates to child labor and labor law systems, and artificial intelligence for processing documents. The request names Google's Gemini as an example of that last item, GovTech reported.
