By:  Nelson                                            S.B. No. 150
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the student use fee at Tarleton State University.
    1-2        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-3        SECTION 1.  Section 55.16, Education Code, is amended to read
    1-4  as follows:
    1-5        Sec. 55.16.  Rentals, Rates, Charges, and Fees.  <(a)>  Each
    1-6  board shall be authorized to fix and collect rentals, rates,
    1-7  charges, and/or fees from students and others for the occupancy,
    1-8  services, use, and/or availability of all or any of its property,
    1-9  buildings, structures, activities, operations, or other facilities,
   1-10  in such amounts and in such manner as may be determined by the
   1-11  board; provided, however, that all student use fees shall be fixed
   1-12  and collected in proportion to the number of semester credit hours
   1-13  for which a student registers, and shall not exceed $12 per
   1-14  semester hour, except that those schools charging more than $6 per
   1-15  semester hour as of May 1, 1975, shall not exceed the amount being
   1-16  charged as of that date<, and except as provided by Subsection (b)
   1-17  of this section>.  The board may waive all or any part of any such
   1-18  student use fees in the case of any student for whom the payment of
   1-19  such student use fee would cause an undue economic hardship, except
   1-20  that the number of such students for whom such waivers are granted
   1-21  shall not exceed 5% of the total enrollment; and further provided
   1-22  that nothing in this section shall affect, limit, or impair any
   1-23  pledge, covenant, or option made or reserved by the board with
   1-24  respect to any revenue bonds outstanding as of the 1975 amendment
    2-1  to this section, issued by the board pursuant to this chapter; and
    2-2  provided that hereafter if bonds are issued pursuant to Section
    2-3  55.17 of this code, to be secured by a pledge of a limited or
    2-4  unlimited use fee, and if, at the time of authorizing the issuance
    2-5  of the bonds, (1) the estimated maximum amount per semester hour of
    2-6  such pledged use fee (based on then current enrollment and
    2-7  conditions) during any future semester necessary to provide for the
    2-8  payment of the principal of and interest on the bonds when due,
    2-9  together with (2) the aggregate amount of all use fees which were
   2-10  levied on a semester hour basis for the then current semester to
   2-11  pay the principal of and interest on all previously issued bonds,
   2-12  do not exceed $12 per semester hour, <except as provided by
   2-13  Subsection (b) of this section,> then such limited or unlimited use
   2-14  fee shall be levied and collected when and to the extent required
   2-15  by the resolution authorizing the issuance of the bonds in any
   2-16  amount required to provide for the payment of the principal of and
   2-17  interest on the bonds, regardless of any other provision of this
   2-18  section or the limitations contained herein.
   2-19        <(b)  If approved by student vote as provided by this
   2-20  subsection, for students enrolled at Tarleton State University, the
   2-21  board of regents of The Texas A&M University System may set the
   2-22  student use fee authorized under Subsection (a) of this section in
   2-23  an amount not to exceed $12 per semester hour.  The fee increase
   2-24  may not be imposed unless the increase has been approved by a
   2-25  majority of those students voting on the issue in a general student
   2-26  election in which the issue is presented.>
   2-27        SECTION 2.  Section 55.16, Education Code, as amended by this
    3-1  Act, applies only to student use fees at Tarleton State University
    3-2  that become due beginning with the fall semester in 1993.  Student
    3-3  use fees at Tarleton State University that became due before that
    3-4  semester are governed by the law in effect at the time those fees
    3-5  were due, and that law is continued in effect for this purpose
    3-6  only.
    3-7        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-8  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-9  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-10  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-11  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   3-12  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   3-13  passage, and it is so enacted.