|
Senate Bill 5 |
Senate Author: Zaffirini |
|
Effective: See below |
House Sponsor: Branch |
Senate Bill 5 amends Education Code, Government Code, Health and Safety Code, Insurance Code, Labor Code, Natural Resources Code, Property Code, Tax Code, and Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes provisions relating to the administration and business affairs of public institutions of higher education as follows, effective June 17, 2011.
With respect to the financial management of institutions of higher education, Article 1, Senate Bill 5:
· under certain conditions and restrictions, authorizes an institution's governing board to maintain unsecured deposits in a foreign bank as necessary to support the institution's academic and research operations in the foreign country in which the bank is located;
· exempts an institution from having to expend resources for further collection efforts of a delinquent obligation if, considering certain relevant factors, the institution determines that further collection should not be actively pursued;
· authorizes an institution to maintain an unclaimed money fund to hold credit balances of less than $25 that are presumed abandoned and exempts balances in such a fund from requirements for reporting, delivery, and claims processing of unclaimed property;
· authorizes an institution to make any payment through electronic funds transfer or by electronic pay card;
· requires each institution to post on its Internet website a copy of its financial transactions to the extent necessary to provide for each payment the amount, date, and purpose of the payment and the payee's name; and
· exempts a state security issued by an institution, at its request, or for its benefit from Bond Review Board review and approval if the institution or the university system of which it is a component has a specified unenhanced long-term debt rating and state general revenue is not pledged to pay the security.
With respect to acquisition of higher education goods and services, Article 2, Senate Bill 5: clarifies conflict-of-interest provisions relating to the qualifications of certain business entities to contract with an institution of higher education;
· with the exception of professional services, exempts an institution's acquisition of goods and services from statutory provisions governing state purchasing and general and consulting services, provided the institution complies with state law relating to contracting with historically underutilized businesses or persons with disabilities;
· requires an institution or university system to determine whether, and the extent to which, it will send and accept electronic or digital signatures and otherwise create, communicate, store, process, use, and rely on electronic or digital signatures;
· exempts the purchase of liability insurance by an institution or university system from statutory provisions requiring purchase of policies on state-approved policy forms from a liability insurance company authorized to do business in Texas;
· authorizes a local government and an institution or university system to contract with one another to perform any governmental functions and services and exempts such functions and services from competitive procurement requirements if the contract provides for payment based on cost recovery; and
· requires a university system or institution to notify the Legislative Budget Board in writing of a contract for a major information system only if the cost exceeds $1 million.
With respect to an institution of higher education's human resources, Article 3, Senate Bill 5: permits the governing board of a university system or of an institution to authorize its employees to elect a payroll deduction for any purpose that the governing board determines serves a public purpose and benefits employees;
· authorizes a system to establish insurance premium discounts, surcharges, rebates, or a revision in insurance copayments, coinsurance, or deductibles, or any combination of incentives, for an individual who participates in system-approved programs promoting disease prevention, wellness, and health;
· exempts a university system's contributions to the uniform program for a tenured faculty member working less than 40 hours a week before the member's retirement from the limitation on such contributions for certain part-time employees; and
· specifies the amount of an authorized payroll deduction for an individual automatically enrolled in a uniform program as the difference between the total cost of the employee's basic coverage and the amount contributed by the system for that basic coverage.
With respect to real estate and construction, Article 4, Senate Bill 5:
· establishes an expedited process for coordinating board approval of certain higher education capital acquisition or improvement projects;
· exempts a higher education construction project from statutory provisions requiring uniform general conditions in state construction contracts and exempts a university system from statutory provisions governing leasing of space for state agencies; and
· limits the attachment of a deferred tax lien to the estate of the life tenant and not to the remainder interest if the owner of the remainder is an institution of higher education that has not consented to the deferral.
With respect to higher education memberships and appointments, Article 5, Senate Bill 5:
· clarifies the nature of information relating to an applicant for the position of chief executive officer of an institution of higher education that is temporarily protected from public disclosure under the state's open records law; and
· removes a member of The University of Texas System board of regents from the Type 2 Diabetes Risk Assessment Program Advisory Committee and removes a board appointee from the Gaines County Solid Waste Management District's board of directors.
With respect to reports, records, audits, and notices required of institutions of higher education, Article 6, Senate Bill 5:
· exempts a medical or dental unit from the annual reporting requirement regarding student success under the Success Initiative;
· removes a small class reporting requirement applicable to each institution and exempts a university system or institution of higher education from having to make certain reports required by statute or rule on or after September 1, 2013, unless a law passed by the 83rd Legislature or a rule affirmatively readopted expressly requires that report;
· protects from disclosure information maintained by or for an institution relating to the commercialization of research or unpublished data;
· requires the governor's office and the Legislative Budget Board to review the forms for higher education legislative appropriations requests to identify potential improvements in efficiency, transparency of funding sources, elimination of unnecessary or duplicative requirements, and reduction in cost or difficulty of providing information for a request; and
· exempts university systems and institutions of higher education from the comptroller of public accounts property accounting system and instead requires each system or institution to designate one or more property managers and exempts such systems and institutions from certain annual reporting requirements and from certain notification requirements generally applicable to state agencies.
With respect to student fee advisory committees, Article 7, Senate Bill 5, requires such advisory committee to conduct meetings at which a quorum is present in a manner that is open to the public and in accordance with certain notice procedures prescribed by the institution's president.
With respect to The Texas A&M University System, Article 8, Senate Bill 5, establishes The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center, consisting of the specified system components, and also establishes The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center Irma Rangel College of Pharmacy.
Article 9, Senate Bill 5, repeals, effective September 1, 2011, provisions relating to certain reports of information regarding higher education, a uniform recruitment and retention strategy, project approval by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and a consolidated public junior and community college plan, and effective September 1, 2013, provisions relating to certain reports of information and studies regarding higher education, the submission of a campus master plan, and certain review and approval processes by the coordinating board.