By: Nelson S.B. No. 150
73R2102 SOS-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the student use fee at Tarleton State University.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 55.16, Education Code, is amended to read
1-5 as follows:
1-6 Sec. 55.16. Rentals, Rates, Charges, and Fees. <(a)> Each
1-7 board shall be authorized to fix and collect rentals, rates,
1-8 charges, and/or fees from students and others for the occupancy,
1-9 services, use, and/or availability of all or any of its property,
1-10 buildings, structures, activities, operations, or other facilities,
1-11 in such amounts and in such manner as may be determined by the
1-12 board; provided, however, that all student use fees shall be fixed
1-13 and collected in proportion to the number of semester credit hours
1-14 for which a student registers, and shall not exceed $12 per
1-15 semester hour, except that those schools charging more than $6 per
1-16 semester hour as of May 1, 1975, shall not exceed the amount being
1-17 charged as of that date<, and except as provided by Subsection (b)
1-18 of this section>. The board may waive all or any part of any such
1-19 student use fees in the case of any student for whom the payment of
1-20 such student use fee would cause an undue economic hardship, except
1-21 that the number of such students for whom such waivers are granted
1-22 shall not exceed 5% of the total enrollment; and further provided
1-23 that nothing in this section shall affect, limit, or impair any
1-24 pledge, covenant, or option made or reserved by the board with
2-1 respect to any revenue bonds outstanding as of the 1975 amendment
2-2 to this section, issued by the board pursuant to this chapter; and
2-3 provided that hereafter if bonds are issued pursuant to Section
2-4 55.17 of this code, to be secured by a pledge of a limited or
2-5 unlimited use fee, and if, at the time of authorizing the issuance
2-6 of the bonds, (1) the estimated maximum amount per semester hour of
2-7 such pledged use fee (based on then current enrollment and
2-8 conditions) during any future semester necessary to provide for the
2-9 payment of the principal of and interest on the bonds when due,
2-10 together with (2) the aggregate amount of all use fees which were
2-11 levied on a semester hour basis for the then current semester to
2-12 pay the principal of and interest on all previously issued bonds,
2-13 do not exceed $12 per semester hour, <except as provided by
2-14 Subsection (b) of this section,> then such limited or unlimited use
2-15 fee shall be levied and collected when and to the extent required
2-16 by the resolution authorizing the issuance of the bonds in any
2-17 amount required to provide for the payment of the principal of and
2-18 interest on the bonds, regardless of any other provision of this
2-19 section or the limitations contained herein.
2-20 <(b) If approved by student vote as provided by this
2-21 subsection, for students enrolled at Tarleton State University, the
2-22 board of regents of The Texas A&M University System may set the
2-23 student use fee authorized under Subsection (a) of this section in
2-24 an amount not to exceed $12 per semester hour. The fee increase
2-25 may not be imposed unless the increase has been approved by a
2-26 majority of those students voting on the issue in a general student
2-27 election in which the issue is presented.>
3-1 SECTION 2. Section 55.16, Education Code, as amended by this
3-2 Act, applies only to student use fees at Tarleton State University
3-3 that become due beginning with the fall semester in 1993. Student
3-4 use fees at Tarleton State University that became due before that
3-5 semester are governed by the law in effect at the time those fees
3-6 were due, and that law is continued in effect for this purpose
3-7 only.
3-8 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-13 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-14 passage, and it is so enacted.