1-1     By:  West (Senate Sponsor - Duncan)                    H.B. No. 229
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House March 17, 1999;
 1-3     March 18, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Education; April 6, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 8, Nays 0; April 6, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to student union fees at The University of Texas of the
 1-9     Permian Basin.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Subchapter E, Chapter 54, Education Code, is
1-12     amended by adding Section 54.533 to read as follows:
1-13           Sec. 54.533.  STUDENT UNION FEES; THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS OF
1-14     THE PERMIAN BASIN.  (a)  The board of regents of The University of
1-15     Texas System may  impose a student union fee for the sole purpose
1-16     of financing, constructing, operating, maintaining, and improving a
1-17     student union facility for The University of Texas of the Permian
1-18     Basin.  The amount of the fee may not exceed $50 per student for
1-19     each regular semester, and may not exceed $39 per student for each
1-20     regular semester unless the amount is approved by a majority vote
1-21     of the students participating in a general student election held
1-22     for that purpose.  The fee is in addition to any other fee
1-23     authorized to be imposed.  The board of regents may prorate the
1-24     amount of the fee for a summer session.
1-25           (b)  Revenue collected from the fee shall be deposited to an
1-26     account known as The University of Texas of the Permian Basin
1-27     student union fee account and shall be placed under the control of
1-28     and subject to the order of the student union advisory committee.
1-29     The committee shall annually submit to the president of the
1-30     university a complete itemized budget and a complete report of all
1-31     activities conducted during the preceding year and all expenditures
1-32     made in connection with those activities.  The president shall
1-33     submit the budget to the board of regents as part of the
1-34     institutional budget.  The board of regents shall make changes in
1-35     the budget as the board considers necessary before approving the
1-36     budget, and shall then impose the fee, within the limits provided
1-37     by this section, in amounts sufficient to meet the budgetary needs
1-38     of the student union facility.
1-39           (c)  The board of regents may pledge fees imposed under this
1-40     section to pay obligations issued pursuant to the revenue financing
1-41     system of The University of Texas System.
1-42           (d)  A fee may not be imposed under this section in a
1-43     semester in which the student union facility is not available for
1-44     student use.
1-45           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the fall semester
1-46     of 1999.
1-47           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-48     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-49     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-50     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-51     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-52     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-53     passage, and it is so enacted.
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