1-1 By: Keffer (Senate Sponsor - Sibley) H.B. No. 2415
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House April 30, 1999;
1-3 May 3, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
1-4 Education; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
1-5 Yeas 8, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to a junior college district branch campus, center, or
1-9 extension facility.
1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11 SECTION 1. Section 130.086, Education Code, is amended by
1-12 amending Subsections (a), (c), (d), and (f) and by adding
1-13 Subsections (g) and (h) to read as follows:
1-14 (a) The board of trustees of a junior college district may
1-15 establish and operate branch campuses, centers, or extension
1-16 facilities within the junior college district's service area [,
1-17 without regard to the geographical bounds of the junior college
1-18 district], provided that each branch campus, center, or extension
1-19 facility and each course or program offered in such locations is
1-20 subject to the prior and continuing approval of the Texas Higher
1-21 Education Coordinating Board[, Texas College and University
1-22 System].
1-23 (c) The board of trustees of a junior college district may
1-24 accept or acquire by purchase or rent land and facilities in the
1-25 name of the junior college district within the junior college
1-26 district's service area [without regard to the geographical bounds
1-27 of the junior college district].
1-28 (d) Before any course may be offered by a public junior
1-29 college within the service area [district] of another operating
1-30 public junior college, it must be established that the second
1-31 public junior college is not capable of or is unable to offer the
1-32 course. [If the course is to be offered in a county which has a
1-33 population of more than 115,000 persons, according to the last
1-34 preceding federal census, and which has no state-supported senior
1-35 college or university within its boundaries, it must also be
1-36 established that any other college or university in the county is
1-37 not able and willing to offer the course.] After the need is
1-38 established and the course is not locally available, then the first
1-39 public junior college may offer the course when approval is granted
1-40 by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board[, under the
1-41 provisions of Subsection (a)].
1-42 (f) Notwithstanding Subchapter J, the service area of a
1-43 junior college district does not include territory within the
1-44 boundaries of the taxing district of another junior college
1-45 district. If a branch campus, center, or extension facility
1-46 operated by a junior college district outside its taxing district
1-47 becomes located within the taxing district of another junior
1-48 college district when the other district is established or annexes
1-49 the territory that includes the campus, center, or facility, the
1-50 junior college district operating the campus, center, or facility
1-51 must discontinue the campus, center, or facility within a
1-52 reasonable period, not to exceed one academic year. The junior
1-53 college district in which the campus, center, or facility is
1-54 located must fairly compensate the junior college district that
1-55 discontinues the campus, center, or facility for any capital
1-56 improvements that the discontinuing district acquired or
1-57 constructed for the campus, center, or facility, to the extent the
1-58 discontinuing district is otherwise unable to recover the current
1-59 value of its investment in that capital improvement, as determined
1-60 by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board [Out-of-district
1-61 branch campuses, centers, or extension facilities of junior
1-62 colleges existing prior to September 1, 1971, shall be reviewed by
1-63 the Coordinating Board, Texas College and University System, to
1-64 determine their feasibility and desirability with respect to the
2-1 junior college and the population of the geographical area served
2-2 by the branch campus, center, or extension facility].
2-3 (g) Subsections (a) and (c) do not apply to a branch campus,
2-4 center, or extension facility that is established before September
2-5 1, 1999.
2-6 (h) This section does not affect the authority of the Texas
2-7 Higher Education Coordinating Board regarding the continued
2-8 operation of a branch campus, center, or extension facility.
2-9 SECTION 2. Section 130.087(k), Education Code, is amended to
2-10 read as follows:
2-11 (k) The proceeds of the junior college district branch
2-12 campus maintenance tax may be used only to operate and maintain a
2-13 junior college district branch campus and to support its programs
2-14 and services [only] in the area of a jurisdiction that levies a
2-15 junior college district branch campus maintenance tax to operate,
2-16 maintain, and support the same junior college district branch
2-17 campus [:]
2-18 [(1) the area of the jurisdiction levying the junior
2-19 college district branch campus maintenance tax; or]
2-20 [(2) the area of a jurisdiction contiguous to the
2-21 jurisdiction levying the tax that also levies a junior college
2-22 district branch campus maintenance tax to operate, maintain, and
2-23 support the same junior college district branch campus].
2-24 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-25 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-26 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-27 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-28 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-29 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
2-30 * * * * *