By Maxey                                              H.B. No. 1932
         76R5829 KEL-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the authority of the board of regents of The University
 1-3     of Texas System to increase the student union fee at The University
 1-4     of Texas at Austin.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 54.530(a), Education Code, is amended to
 1-7     read as follows:
 1-8           (a)  The board of regents of The University of Texas System
 1-9     may levy and collect from each student a compulsory fee for
1-10     operating, maintaining, improving, equipping, and/or constructing
1-11     additions to the existing Texas Union building near Guadalupe
1-12     Street.  Unless the board increases the amount as provided by this
1-13     subsection, the fee may not [to] exceed $33 for each regular
1-14     semester and $16.50 for each term of each summer session.  The
1-15     money collected from the[, with such] fees shall [to] be deposited
1-16     to an account known as the Texas Union Fee Account.  With the
1-17     concurrence of the Student Fees Advisory Committee, the board may
1-18     increase the amount of the [; this] fee [may be raised] to an
1-19     amount that is not more than 10 percent of the amount imposed in
1-20     the preceding academic year.  The board may increase the amount of
1-21     the fee to an amount that is more than 10 percent of the amount
1-22     imposed in the preceding academic year [not to exceed $40 for each
1-23     regular semester and $20 for each term of each summer session] if
1-24     that increase in the fee is approved by a majority vote of those
 2-1     students participating in a general election called for that
 2-2     purpose.  However, the board may not increase the amount of the fee
 2-3     to an amount that is more than $40 for each regular semester and
 2-4     $20 for each term of each summer session.  The activities of said
 2-5     Texas Union building financed in whole or in part by the [this] fee
 2-6     shall be limited to those activities in which the entire student
 2-7     body is eligible to participate, and in no event shall any of the
 2-8     activities so financed be held outside of the territorial limits of
 2-9     the campus of The University of Texas at Austin.
2-10           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1999 fall
2-11     semester and applies to fees charged on or after that date.  Fees
2-12     charged before the 1999 fall semester are governed by the law in
2-13     effect at the time the fees are charged, and that law is continued
2-14     in effect for that purpose.
2-15           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-20     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-21     passage, and it is so enacted.