MMA S.B. 806 75(R)BILL ANALYSIS HIGHER EDUCATION S.B. 806 By: Ogden (Rangel) 4-24-97 Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND Currently, the practice of using student service fees and auxiliary enterprise revenues to fund intercollegiate athletics is widespread throughout public institutions of higher education in Texas (institutions). Most schools use these fees to compensate for the deficit in their athletic programs, or the difference between athletic department generated revenues and athletic expenditures. In many cases, students are not aware of the amount of their student fees being used to pay for athletics. This legislation would place a cap on the amount of student fees that can be used to pay for intercollegiate athletics and would prohibit governing boards at institutions from using revenue derived from student fees to support athletics unless the institution informs the students of the amount that will be used to fund athletics and subjects the fee to approval by the student body. PURPOSE S.B. 806 prohibits student fees from being used to support intercollegiate athletics at a public institution of higher education under certain conditions. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter A, Chapter 54, Education Code, by adding Section 54.009, to read as follows: Sec. 54.009. USE OF FEES TO SUPPORT INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS. (a) Prohibits the governing board of an institution from using revenue derived from any student fee to support intercollegiate athletics, except as provided by Subsections (b) and (c). (b) Authorizes an institution to support intercollegiate athletics with funds from receipts or ticket sales from athletic events. (c) Authorizes an institution to use a student fee, general use fee, or revenue derived from a fee to support intercollegiate athletics if the institution informs its students at least once a year of the amount of fees used and the ballot expressly states the amount of the fee that will be used if subject to approval at a student body election. (d) Prohibits the total amount of student fees that may be used to support intercollegiate athletics from exceeding $100 per student for a semester or 12-week summer term or $35 for a summer term shorter than 12 weeks. (e) Provides that this section is retroactive and applies to all student fees and general use fees regardless of when they were adopted or approved. Exempts a fee approved at a student body election before the date this section became law and states that it is subject to Subsection (c)(2) only if the amount of the fee is increased. (f) Defines "student fee" and "general use fee." (g) Exempts a capital improvement project using auxiliary funds at an institution to finance a project, if approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board before September 1, 1997. SECTION 2. (a) Effective date: September 1, 1997. Provides that this Act applies beginning with fees charged for the spring semester of 1998. (b) Provides that if in the fall semester of 1997, an institution is charging a total amount of student fees and general use fees to support intercollegiate athletics in excess of the amount allowed under Section 54.009, Education Code, as added, the institution shall comply with the provisions of Section 54.009 by the fall semester, 1998. SECTION 3. Emergency clause.