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Senate Bill 1941 |
Senate Author: Shapiro |
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Effective: 6-19-09 |
House Sponsor: Morrison |
Senate Bill 1941 amends the Education Code to include the prepaid tuition unit undergraduate education program (Texas Tomorrow Fund II) among the programs under the Prepaid Higher Education Tuition Board that terminate with the board's abolition September 1, 2019, unless the board and the programs are continued in existence as provided by the Texas Sunset Act, and adds a career school to the educational entities at which the beneficiary of a prepaid tuition contract is entitled to apply purchased tuition units toward payment of the person's undergraduate tuition and required fees.
The bill establishes that the Texas Save and Match program is considered an eligible charitable organization entitled to participate in a state employee charitable campaign, entitles a state employee to authorize a payroll deduction for contributions to the program as a charitable contribution, and entitles the program to participate in the state employee charitable campaign conducted during the autumn of 2009 without regard to any limitation on the application period for an organization to participate in the campaign.
The bill authorizes the comptroller to designate the financial institution under contract with the coordinating board to serve as administrator of the higher education savings plan as the comptroller's authorized representative to pay expenditures or transfer funds under certain provisions of the Texas Tomorrow Fund II program. The bill also requires the comptroller to provide to the coordinating board an annual statement of the amount of Texas Tomorrow Fund II assets in the custody of either the comptroller or the plan manager and requires the plan manager to provide to the comptroller a quarterly report of all funds distributed during the previous quarter. The comptroller may require more frequent reports or request that the plan manager provide any additional information at any time necessary to ensure that the fund's assets are adequately protected.
The bill removes provisions specifying that the amount of a transfer to a private or independent institution of higher education or an accredited out-of-state institution of higher education on the redemption of prepaid tuition units be based, in part and depending on the type of unit, on the tuition and required fees at certain public institutions in the sales year in which the unit was purchased. The bill removes similar sales year provisions relating to the value of an account for purposes of transfers among 529 plans authorized by the federal Internal Revenue Code of 1986.