Public colleges and universities will have $3.3 billion of bond authority for construction if Gov. Greg Abbott signs a bill passed in the third special session of the Texas legislature.
Passage of Senate Bill 52 came a week after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Senate’s presiding officer, asked Abbott to include tuition revenue bonds in his call for the special session.
The session was called primarily for redistricting.
Passage of the bill marks the first time in six years that Texas lawmakers have approved tuition revenue bonds, commonly known as TRBs.
“Not only are these projects important for higher education, they have the capacity to provide the types of credentials that our workforce needs today and going into the future,” said Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, in a prepared statement. “They also serve an economic purpose throughout our state creating jobs both in construction and manufacturing.”
Flagship universities for the various systems were funded at 90% with the exception of the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, which were funded at 80% because of their access to the Permanent University Fund endowment.
Texas Tech University is funded at 100% to help keep funding between systems as equitable as possible.
The bill provides funding for 47 projects at colleges and universities.
The University of Texas received about half of the $100 million it requested.
"There is a critical need for capital investment across UT institutions," System Chancellor James B. Milliken said in a prepared statement. "We are grateful for the support of our state leadership and Legislature for this much-needed funding that will help advance our education, research and health care missions.”
UT’s M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston will get $80 million of bonds for construction of a life sciences research, innovation, and discovery facility.
The UT Medical Branch at Galveston will get $87 million for infrastructure and research space upgrades.
Texas A&M University was awarded $80 million for construction of the Texas Medical Center in Houston.
The University of Houston System, a new entrant in medical schools, gets $128 million for construction of a medical research facility.
The Texas State University System in San Marcos, aiming to become a Tier 1 university like UT Austin and Texas A&M in College Station, received more than $422 million, including about $52,4 million for construction of a health professions building in the booming Austin suburb of Round Rock.
