El Paso loses money for UTEP, Texas Tech campus projects

Texas Tech's Health Sciences Center at El Paso.

AUSTIN -- Billions in construction funding for Texas universities died Monday in a dispute between the two chambers of the Texas Legislature.

If the House version of the bill had prevailed, El Paso would have gotten between $88 million and $166 million for a new building at the University of Texas at El Paso and $78 million for a new building for the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

If the House and Senate had been able to agree, it would have been the first time the Legislature approved so-called "tuition-revenue bonds" since 2006. Legislators said the bonds were needed because Texas is growing rapidly and its universities are bursting at the seams.

UTEP Executive Vice President Richard Adauto on Monday

said there is no plan B to fund a $110 million, 250,000-square-foot interdisciplinary research building at the intersection of Sun Bowl Drive and University Avenue.

"There really is no other kind of funding," he said Monday morning. "We'll have to go back to the Legislature."

The funding fell victim to a dispute between the Texas House, which wanted to issue $2.7 billion worth of tuition revenue bonds, and the Texas Senate, which wanted to issue $2.4 billion.

The House, which wanted to give UTEP $40 million more than the Senate did, refused to appoint negotiators to a conference committee aimed at resolving differences between the two chambers. It was saying, in effect, that the Senate had to adopt its version of the

funding bill.

State Sen. Jos? Rodr?guez, D-El Paso, said the Senate did not respond well to such an ultimatum from the House.

"The House expected the Senate to simply go along with their version," Rodr?guez said.

State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, said he and his House colleagues were convinced theirs was the better version of the bill.

But Rodr?guez said the Senate worked with the Higher Education Coordinating Board to use a process to determine how to grant funding.

He said the House decisions were more arbitrary.

Even so, Rodr?guez said, he tried to convince his colleagues to accept the deal.

"Border institutions like ours have been neglected for years," he said.

In the end, senators arguing that it would set a bad precedent to cave in to the House prevailed, and the bill died despite early-morning attempts to save it.

Also among senators' worries was that in order to OK the House version, they would have to approve a $300 million "technical correction" to the bill.

"They were worried that the voters wouldn't see that as a technical correction," Rodr?guez said.

Gov. Rick Perry is expected to call a special legislative session in the coming days. An early press release listed legislative redistricting as the only item on the agenda.

But Rodr?guez said that Perry added items to the agenda as the last special session went on. Lawmakers are said to be pressing the governor to add tuition revenue bonds to the special session agenda.

Marty Schladen may be reached at mschlade@elpasotimes.com; 512-479-6606.

Source: http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_23333909/el-paso-loses-money-campus-projects?source=rss_viewed

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