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House Bill 3353 |
House Author: Naishtat et al. |
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Effective: 6-19-09 |
Senate Sponsor: Shapleigh |
House Bill 3353 amends the Education Code to authorize the governing board of an institution of higher education to charge each student enrolled at the institution an environmental service fee of up to $5 per regular semester or summer term of more than six weeks or $2.50 per summer term of six weeks or less to provide environmental improvements at the institution through services related to recycling, energy efficiency and renewable energy, transportation, employment, product purchasing, planning and maintenance, or irrigation, or to provide matching funds for grants to obtain such environmental improvements. The bill makes the initial levy and any fee increase subject to approval by a majority vote of the students voting in an election held for that purpose but prohibits an increase that would result in a fee exceeding $10 per regular semester or summer term of more than six weeks or $5 per summer session of six weeks or less.
The bill prohibits an institution that imposes the fee from using fee revenue to reduce or replace other money allocated by the institution for environmental projects and requires any fee revenue above the amount needed to cover current operating expenses for environmental services and any interest generated from that revenue to be used for the environmental improvements described above. The bill establishes that the fee is not considered in determining the maximum amount of student services fees that an institution of higher education may charge. The bill prohibits the fee from being charged after the fifth academic year in which the fee is first charged unless, before the end of that academic year, the institution has issued bonds payable in whole or in part from the fee, in which event the fee may not be charged after the academic year in which all such bonds, including refunding bonds for those bonds, have been fully paid.