UTMB could get $87M under late-developing bond bill

Abbott on Friday amended his call for the legislature’s current special session “to improve higher education.” Abbott’s announcement appeared to be meant for lawmakers to pass a bill to send Texas universities $3 billion in funding for construction projects through tuition revenue bonds.

Of that money, more than $87 million is proposed for the medical branch to expand its neuroscience and addiction research programs.

During a special legislative session, lawmakers can only consider items that have been called a priority by the governor.

Following Abbott’s announcement, the Texas Senate moved quickly and passed the bill on Friday afternoon, sending it to the Texas House.

Abbott’s call for education funding came two days after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, urged Abbott to allow the funding bill to be considered.

Even before Abbott made his announcement, lawmakers were starting to make plans to move the funding forward.

The spending is included in Senate Bill 52, which was drafted by state Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Republican from Conroe whose district includes Bolivar Peninsula. The bill was voted out of the Senate Committee on Higher Education, which Creighton chairs, on Thursday.

The original version of Creighton’s bill proposed spending $1.3 billion of state money on tuition revenue bonds. On Thursday, he amended his bill to more than double the spending to $3 billion. The funding for the medical branch was included in that amendment.

The bill has a short clock for consideration, however. The 30-day special session began on Sept. 20 and is set to end on Tuesday. The bill already has passed out of the full Senate but still needs to make it through a House committee and the full House of Representatives.

WHAT THE MONEY IS FOR

The money would be divided among dozens of Texas colleges and universities, including the medical branch. According to the bill, the medical branch would receive $87.4 million in bonds “for infrastructure and research space upgrades for research buildings.”

In a budget submitted to the legislature last year, medical branch officials wrote they weren’t planning to “formally request” any funding through a tuition revenue bond.

“If the Legislature decides to consider (tuition revenue bonds), UTMB does have construction needs that we hope would be considered,” the budget document said.

The medical branch, however, did officially request $109 million in infrastructure and research space upgrades, officials said Friday. Senate Bill 52 proposes covering about 80 percent of that request.

The money is needed to address aging infrastructure in four research buildings. Three buildings, which are all at least 40 years old, need heating, cooling and electrical system upgrades, as well as repairs to their roofs and facades.

The buildings are beyond their useful lives and their unreliability and time offline hamper research, the medical branch said.

Other money will be used to make sure buildings are compliant with fire, safety and disability access rules.

Finally, the money could be used to build a new MRI facility to assist with the university’s growing neurodegeneration and addiction research programs.

“We thank the Legislature and state leadership for their consideration of Tuition Revenue Bonds,” medical branch President Dr. Ben Raimer said in a statement. “At UTMB, this funding would strengthen critical research infrastructure that supports the discovery of new ways to improve health. In total, the investment in higher education is an investment in the future of Texas.”

Tuition revenue bonds have played a large part in the medical branch’s growth and expansion in recent years.

If the new bill passes, it would be the first time lawmakers passed tuition revenue bonds since 2015, when they passed a $3 billion package for state universities. That bill included $67 million for the medical branch’s new health education center.

In 2009, the medical branch received $150 million in tuition revenue bonds, which laid the groundwork for the construction of the new Jennie Sealy Hospital. The funding was seen as a landmark moment for the island’s recovery following Hurricane Ike.

OTHER SCHOOLS

The 2015 bill also included $60 million for the construction of a new classroom and laboratory facility at Texas A&M University at Galveston. The 2021 bill doesn’t include any bond funding for the Texas A&M campus.

Texas A&M earlier this year, however, was appropriated $45 million from the state’s general revenue fund, to pay for the dock and infrastructure improvement to make the Pelican Island campus ready to receive a new 525-foot long training ship that’s scheduled to arrive in 2025.

Senate Bill 52 also includes $60 million for the University of Houston — Clear Lake, which is located just north of the Galveston County line. The money would go toward renovations of three buildings on the Clear Lake campus, according to the bill.