Tier one bill contains money for Ike repairs

A Dallas lawmaker won applause and praise in the Texas House for putting his legislation in danger to help a peer find $150 million for the hurricane-ravaged University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

Now the proposal is headed to Gov. Rick Perry.

The House vote came late Sunday, a day before the Legislature must adjourn. The Senate approved the measure earlier.

Rep. Dan Branch, a Dallas Republican, was close earlier this week to seeing his bill passed helping more Texas universities become major research centers. And Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, saw both the House and Senate approve a state budget without the $150 million he had been seeking for UTMB.

"He was about to dive across the goal line and I knocked him out of bounds to see if I could hitch a ride," Eiland said.

Hurricane Ike ripped through UTMB's island campus on Sept. 13, putting the school's trauma center and more than half the hospital's beds out of commission. The future of the school has been in question since then. Some suggested moving the school off the island in whole or in part.

In the eyes of the UTMB faculty, students and Galveston leaders who testified before the Legislature, the island's future was tied to that of the school. They returned to Austin several times to plead with state lawmakers to support UTMB rebuilding efforts and to keep the school on the island.

The UT System Board of Regents in March approved a more than $1 billion rebuilding plan that relied on a complex series of funding sources, including federal stimulus and Federal Emergency Management Agency dollars, private matching funds and more than $300 million from the Legislature.

Money for UTMB appeared and disappeared in several bills as they moved through the Capitol. In the end Eiland came up short. He announced to the House that he was looking to tack a $150 million bond package onto another bill, and Branch stepped up.

Branch's bill creates funding pools and incentives for emerging research universities to advance to nationally recognized Tier One schools. Schools would then have to use the money directly to support their research efforts.

Seven universities have been identified as emerging research schools, including the University of Houston and Texas Tech University. But Raymund Paredes, commissioner of the Higher Education Coordinating Board, has said it could take 20 to 30 years of "significant funding" before those schools become Tier One universities.

Supporters say Texas is behind other large states like California, which has nine Tier One Universities. Texas has three — Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at Austin and Rice University.

Some lawmakers objected to tacking on the bond money. There were concerns that it set a bad precedent by allowing legislators find funding outside the main budget process.

But a large crowd of bipartisan legislators standing behind the two applauded when the bill was passed.

Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, said Branch's actions showed the most "political guts" she had seen this session.

"We did it because this body has compassion for the citizenry when they have hard times," said Rep. Delwin Jones, a Republican from Lubbock.

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The Tier One bill is HB51.