BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.S.B. 1334

By: Hegar

Higher Education

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

In 2003, the legislature authorized the imposition of an athletics fee at Prairie View A&M University for the first time but included a sunset provision abolishing the fee on September 1, 2013. The students at Prairie View A&M held an election on April 22, 2008, to vote on removing this sunset clause from the legislation. The election was held and publicized by the Student Government Association, and the referendum passed with two-thirds of the students voting in the election voting in support of the issue.

The intercollegiate athletics fee is the primary funding mechanism for the Division I athletics programs at Prairie View A&M, and the university will not be able to maintain its athletics programs without it.

C.S.S.B. 1334 adds an exception to the expiration date on the athletics fee at Prairie View A&M University, continuing the fee if, before the end of the 2012-2013 academic year, The Texas A&M University System board of regents issues bonds that are payable wholly or partly from the fee and continuing the fee only until such bonds are fully paid.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.S.B. 1334 amends the Education Code to add an exception to the scheduled expiration of the intercollegiate athletics fee at Prairie View A&M University, continuing the fee if, before the end of the 2012-2013 academic year The Texas A&M University System board of regents issues bonds that are payable wholly or partly from the fee. The bill prohibits the fee, if the board of regents issues such bonds, from being imposed in any semester or session beginning after the date on which all of those bonds, including refunding bonds for the bonds, have been fully paid.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the act does not receive the necessary vote, the act takes effect September 1, 2009.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.S.B. 1334 differs from the original by adding an exception to the scheduled expiration of the intercollegiate athletics fee at Prairie View A&M University, continuing the fee on the condition that The Texas A&M University System board of regents issue bonds, before the expiration date, payable wholly or partly from the fee, whereas the original repeals the expiration date altogether. The substitute adds a provision not in the original prohibiting the athletics fee, if the board of regents issues such bonds, from being imposed in any semester or session beginning after the date on which all of those bonds, including refunding bonds for the bonds, have been fully paid.