80R5856 CAS-D

By: Rose H.B. No. 3448

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

relating to limiting the amount of designated tuition that a public institution of higher education may charge if legislative appropriations are sufficient to pay certain costs of the institution.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Section 54.0513, Education Code, is amended by adding Subsection (g) to read as follows:

(g) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the amount of tuition charged to a student under this section for an academic year may exceed the total amount of tuition that the institution would have charged under this section to a similarly situated student in the preceding academic year only if for either year of the state fiscal biennium preceding the biennium that includes the academic year for which the tuition rates are established, the legislature failed to appropriate an amount of general revenue for the institution's maintenance and operations costs that is equal to or greater than the state's share of those costs as established under Section 61.0592 for the relevant academic year. For purposes of this subsection, students are similarly situated if they share the same residency status, degree program, course load, course level, tuition exemption status, and other circumstances affecting the tuition charged to the student. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board may adopt rules as necessary to administer this subsection.

SECTION 2. Subchapter C, Chapter 61, Education Code, is amended by adding Section 61.0592 to read as follows:

Sec. 61.0592. STATE SHARE OF MAINTENANCE AND OPERATIONS COSTS. (a) In this section, "maintenance and operations costs" means the general costs of maintaining and operating an institution of higher education:

(1) including:

(A) the costs of employee salaries and benefits and other costs related to instruction;

(B) the costs of students services;

(C) the costs of administration;

(D) the costs of physical plant operation and maintenance;

(E) the costs of Texas Public Educational Grants; and

(F) excellence expenditures; and

(2) excluding:

(A) new construction and other capital costs; or

(B) special items support, as designated in the General Appropriations Act.

(b) This section applies only to an institution of higher education authorized to charge designated tuition under Section 54.0513.

(c) In connection with the formulas established under Section 61.059 for a state fiscal biennium, the board shall establish for each fiscal year of the biennium:

(1) the maintenance and operations costs of each institution of higher education; and

(2) the state's share of those maintenance and operations costs determined as provided by Subsection (d).

(d) The state's share of an institution of higher education's maintenance and operations costs for a state fiscal year is an amount equal to 105 percent of the amount appropriated from the general revenue fund for maintenance and operations costs of the institution for the preceding fiscal year.

(e) Not later than September 30 of each even-numbered year, the board shall:

(1) determine whether the amount of general revenue appropriated for maintenance and operations costs of each institution of higher education to which this section applies is less than the state's share of those costs for either year of the current state fiscal biennium; and

(2) notify each of those institutions of that determination.

SECTION 3. Section 54.0513(g), Education Code, as added by this Act, does not affect tuition charged under Section 54.0513, Education Code, for a term or semester before the 2009-2010 academic year.

SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this Act takes effect September 1, 2007.