Legislature increases general revenue for Texas State

Jun 17 2009 - 3:11pm | Lora Collins

Texas State may be looking at new faculty and improved campus buildings in coming semesters from increased general revenue from the Texas Legislature.

The school received a 5.1 percent increase in General Revenue appropriation for fiscal years 2010 and 2011, which is the highest increase Texas State has received since 2003 according to Bill Nance, vice president for finance and support services.

“We are very pleased with this outcome as it appears the Legislature is beginning to understand the relationship between General Revenue appropriations and tuition and fees as universities struggle to generate the resources necessary to provide students with a high quality education,” Nance said.

The increase totals $8.8 million and will be used to better assist faculty and staff, hire new faculty and cover a wide range of budget issues.

Nance said the money will cover things such as “enrollment growth, new degree programs and increased utilities costs.”

Richard Cheatham, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication, said University President Denise Trauth will meet soon to discuss how the allocations will be spread across the university.

“We still have one of the highest student/teacher ratios in the state and we will need to add faculty over the next two years,” Cheatham said.

“In addition, we must address faculty and staff salary increases if we are to retain the excellent folks we currently have and if we are to be in a competitive position to recruit on the national market.”

Surrounding projects on campus which received funding are the River Systems Institute and the Texas Schools Safety Center. The River Systems Institute received $1 million to help study water conditions in San Marcos.

Mike Abbott, associate director of the River Systems Institute, said appropriations will assist in extensive research within the Institute.

“It is part of our state appropriations we received and essentially will be used to develop what we are calling the San Marcos River Observing System,” Abbott said. “What we plan to do is essentially develop a database of the San Marcos River so we can better understand the various aspects.”

The Texas School Safety Center received an increase of $500,000 to add to their current appropriation.

Among the facilities on campus the top priority is a recital hall and theater building. School officials were hoping to fund this project with money from Tuition Revenue Bonds however the legislature did not tack on any funding to the TRB this session.

“Even though we will not have TRB funding, we are proceeding with the project,” Nance said. “We will use some of our ongoing Higher

Education Assistance Fund appropriation plus gift funds to construct the building. A Request for Qualifications will be issued shortly to select an architect for the project.”

Cheatham said the lack of TRB funding will not greatly affect the outcome of campus projects because of the $8 million gift they received from Patti Harrison from Wimberley.

“The state was able to balance the budget for the next two years by using several billion “stimulus” dollars from the federal government,”

Cheatham said. “They felt they needed to ‘hold the line’ on special requests such as the money for new buildings through the TRBs.”
He said funding has become limited over time because of a lack of incoming appropriations.

“Over the years that I have been involved in Texas higher education we have lost ground in the percentage of funding provided by the state budget,” Cheatham said. “When I arrived on campus 30 years ago, the state appropriation accounted for more than 70 percent of our university budget. The state appropriation is now closer to 30 percent. If we are to ‘hold the line’ on future tuition increases the state will need to increase the higher education appropriation every year.”

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