Bill for more 'tier one' universities heads for governor's signature

AUSTIN – A bill creating a pathway for Texas to have more top-notch research universities cleared the House and Senate on Sunday and is headed to the governor.

The bill would change two sources of state funds, containing about a half-billion dollars, and target them and $163 million in new money as incentives for seven state universities to attract more research money and top faculty.

Campuses in the hunt for the money to possibly become "tier one" universities would include the University of Texas at Dallas, UT-Arlington and the University of North Texas. Others include Texas Tech, the University of Houston, UT-San Antonio and UT-El Paso.

The Senate quickly signed off on a deal reached by House-Senate negotiators. But in the House, Rep. Yvonne Davis, D-Dallas, briefly delayed House consideration of the bill to protest an unusual process by which negotiators at the last minute added authorization of $150 million of bonds for the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and $5 million for Texas A&M University's Galveston campus. Both sustained hurricane damage last summer.

"Many of us lose bills that are important in terms of what they will do for our district" during budget deliberations, she said. "We don't have the luxury in most instances of coming back with a resolution like this."

Speaker Pro Tem Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, said the money for the campuses in his hometown bounced through several money bills in the session's closing days but had been fully vetted by budget writers.

Corpus Christi lawmakers were unhappy that a local campus lost some state funding as Branch and Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, altered an existing higher education fund. It will be renamed the National Research University Fund. But they relented and let the bill come up.