DALLAS — Key members of the Texas Legislature are developing plans to salvage $2 billion of college and university construction bonds in a special session called to address redistricting.
Under legislative rules, Gov. Rick Perry must add the bond program to the agenda for lawmakers to consider it. Perry has, so far, not indicated any plans to expand the session that began May 27.
"The governor is focused on reviewing the bills that were sent to his desk after the regular session and on redistricting, and no decisions have been made about adding additional items to the special session call," a spokeswoman for the governor said in a prepared statement.
Perry appeared at signing ceremony for House Bill 4, which provides $2 billion for water bonds from the state's $11.8 billion rainy day fund. The funding still requires voter approval in November.
House and Senate committees will open hearings Thursday on the controversial issue of redistricting at sites across Texas.
Without approval of the bonds for higher education, about 60 major construction projects will be delayed at least two years. The Texas Legislature meets in regular session only in odd-numbered years.
Two bills to provide funding for the bond program died in the last days of the regular session due to differences between the House and Senate versions that could not be resolved.
Texas has not authorized tuition revenue bonds since 2006, despite growing enrollment at the state's colleges and universities. Fearful of a Tea Party backlash, Republicans who control the legislature have tread cautiously on spending measures, despite a rapidly improving economy.
For education, the legislature reinstated most of the $5.4 billion in education cuts from the 2011 session but rebuffed calls for funding commensurate with enrollment growth.
In the special session, however, House Higher Education Chairman Dan Branch, R-Dallas, and Senate Higher Education Chairman Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, have filed bills that provide varying amounts for specific higher education projects.
Missing out on the historically low interest rates available in the bond market would be a mistake, Seliger told the Texas Tribune.
"Given the interest rate on bonds, if money's going to be borrowed, this is probably the best time for the next 20 or 25 years," said Seliger, who was once dubious about the wisdom of tuition revenue bonds.
The University of Texas at Austin, the state's largest university, has already allocated $310 million for a new school of engineering building but needs another $95 million of bond authority.
Branch's House Bill 10 and Seliger's Senate Bill 16 would provide the funding.
