By Ellis                                               S.B. No. 808
         76R3468 JSA-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to auditing and evaluating the deferred maintenance needs
 1-3     of state institutions of higher education.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 61.0582, Education Code, is amended by
 1-6     amending Subsections (d) and (e) and adding Subsection (f) to read
 1-7     as follows:
 1-8           (d)  The board by rule shall specify the information
 1-9     concerning deferred maintenance that an institution must report in
1-10     the campus master plan.  The rules must require an institution to
1-11     report its deferred maintenance according to one or more measures
1-12     prescribed by the board for reporting and evaluating deferred
1-13     maintenance needs.  In prescribing the measures to be used, the
1-14     board shall include a measure that to the extent practicable
1-15     conforms to the facilities condition index developed by the
1-16     Association of Physical Plant Administrators.
1-17           (e)  The board shall use the information reported in the plan
1-18     to assess the deferred maintenance needs of those institutions.
1-19     The board shall develop and maintain a comprehensive database of
1-20     the deferred maintenance information the board receives under this
1-21     section and of the board's analysis of that information.  The board
1-22     shall maintain the database in a manner that allows reasonable
1-23     access to useful information by institutions of higher education,
1-24     policymakers, and other interested persons.  The board shall [and]
 2-1     include a current assessment of the deferred maintenance needs of
 2-2     institutions covered by this section [its findings] in the board's
 2-3     annual report.
 2-4           (f)  Not later than January 1, 2001, the board shall conduct
 2-5     a comprehensive audit of all educational and general facilities of
 2-6     each public senior college or university, each medical and dental
 2-7     unit, and each campus of the Texas State Technical College System
 2-8     to quantify and assess the deferred maintenance needs of each
 2-9     institution or campus.  The board may contract with any person the
2-10     board considers appropriate to assist the board in planning,
2-11     administering, or evaluating the audit.  The governing board of
2-12     each institution or campus included in the audit shall contribute a
2-13     portion of the costs of administering this subsection from its
2-14     appropriations that may be expended for physical plant operations,
2-15     support, or maintenance.  The board shall allocate those costs in
2-16     proportion to the portion of the costs attributable to each
2-17     institution or campus included in the audit or on any other
2-18     reasonable basis adopted by the board.  The board shall report the
2-19     results of the audit to the institutions included in the audit, the
2-20     governor, the lieutenant governor, the speaker of the house of
2-21     representatives, and the Legislative Budget Board as soon as
2-22     practicable after the audit is completed.  This subsection expires
2-23     September 1, 2001.
2-24           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-25     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-26     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-27     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 3-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 3-2     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 3-3     passage, and it is so enacted.