Honorable Judith Zaffirini, Chair, Senate Committee on Higher Education
FROM:
John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB774 by Zaffirini (Relating to exemptions for disabled peace officers from the payment of tuition and fees at public institutions of higher education.), As Introduced
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
The bill amends Education Code 54.2041(a) which allows institutions of higher education to exempt disabled peace officers from payment of tuition and fees. The bill makes this exemption mandatory rather than up to the institution. The changes are effective beginning with the Fall 2011 semester. Based on information provided by the Higher Education Coordinating Board, in fiscal year 2010, 40 persons were reported by institutions as using this exemption. The value of the waived tuition and fees equaled $124,339. Of that amount, which includes all types of tuition and all mandatory fees, an estimated $41,000 was in statutory tuition -- the part of tuition and fees that can be considered state revenues. Assuming the statutory change from permissive to mandatory increased the number of people receiving the benefit by 50%, the additional loss revenue tied to statutory tuition would be $20,500, which is not considered significant.
Local Government Impact
No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.
Source Agencies:
710 Texas A&M University System Administrative and General Offices, 720 The University of Texas System Administration, 758 Texas State University System, 768 Texas Tech University System Administration, 769 University of North Texas System Administration, 781 Higher Education Coordinating Board, 783 University of Houston System Administration