BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1237

By: Zedler

Higher Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

According to interested parties, there has been criticism of the financial practices of certain institutions of higher education, particularly regarding financial transparency. These parties assert that at the end of the current biennium the state will have invested more than $22 billion in higher education funding but that transparency related to higher education expenditures is not uniformly available for the public to properly gauge the state's investment.

H.B. 1237 seeks to require each institution of higher education to place certain information related to the institution's checking account transactions on its Internet website.

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

H.B. 1237 amends the Education Code to require each institution of higher education to post on the institution's Internet website a copy of the institution's checking account transaction register to the extent necessary to provide, for each payment by check or electronic transfer drawn from money appropriated from the state general revenue fund or received as student tuition or fee payments, the check or transaction number, the amount of the payment, the date of the payment, a brief description of the purpose of the payment, and the name of the payee.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2011.