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.