By Kamel                                              H.B. No. 3202
       74R9582 JSA-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the issuance of general obligation bonds to finance
    1-3  classrooms at public institutions of higher education and to the
    1-4  distribution and use of revenue from the sale of the bonds.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Chapter 61, Education Code, is amended by adding
    1-7  Subchapter Q to read as follows:
    1-8              SUBCHAPTER Q.  BONDS TO FINANCE CLASSROOMS
    1-9        Sec. 61.841.  ISSUANCE OF BONDS.  (a)  The board may issue
   1-10  bonds in the amount authorized by Section 49-j, Article III, Texas
   1-11  Constitution.
   1-12        (b)  The board shall issue the bonds in the manner provided
   1-13  by general law.  In issuing and administering bonds under this
   1-14  subchapter, the board may exercise any power the board determines
   1-15  appropriate that the board may exercise in connection with bonds
   1-16  issued under Chapter 52.
   1-17        Sec. 61.842.  HIGHER EDUCATION CLASSROOM IMPROVEMENT FUND.
   1-18  The board shall deposit all proceeds from the sale of bonds issued
   1-19  under this subchapter to the credit of the higher education
   1-20  classroom improvement fund to be maintained by the state treasurer
   1-21  outside the state treasury.  Money in the fund may be used only for
   1-22  a purpose authorized for bond proceeds under Section 49-j, Article
   1-23  III, Texas Constitution.
   1-24        Sec. 61.843.  DISTRIBUTION OF FUND.  (a)  The board by rule
    2-1  shall adopt formulas or standards to determine the needs of
    2-2  institutions of higher education for additional classrooms or
    2-3  classroom buildings or for the improvement or maintenance of
    2-4  existing classrooms or classroom buildings for which revenue is not
    2-5  available from other sources.
    2-6        (b)  Each fiscal year in which money is available in the
    2-7  higher education classroom improvement fund, the board shall
    2-8  distribute all or part of that money as the board considers
    2-9  appropriate to institutions of higher education in amounts that
   2-10  fairly reflect the relative needs of each institution according to
   2-11  the formulas or standards adopted under Subsection (a).
   2-12        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect only if the constitutional
   2-13  amendment proposed by the 74th Legislature, Regular Session, 1995,
   2-14  authorizing the issuance of $150 million in general obligation
   2-15  bonds to finance the acquisition, construction, improvement, and
   2-16  maintenance of classrooms by public institutions of higher
   2-17  education, is approved by the voters.  If that proposed
   2-18  constitutional amendment is not approved by the voters, this Act
   2-19  has no effect.
   2-20        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-21  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-22  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-23  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-24  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-25  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-26  passage, and it is so enacted.