UT Arlington, UNT, Tarleton projects on hold after lawmakers fail to approve bonds
With a campus set to open this fall, Tarleton State University has been steadily expanding its offerings in Fort Worth. But the school will have to get creative to fund its growth after lawmakers failed to authorize $3.8 billion in tuition revenue bonds for projects across Texas’ higher education institutions.
Tarleton State University, the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of North Texas system all stood to receive funding for construction of new buildings. But bills that would have paved the way for the capital projects failed to gain traction amid a session that was focused on school finance and property tax reform.
“I think the priorities for the session just rose to the top,” said Kyle McGregor, vice president of Tarleton’s Division of Institutional Advancement. “At the end of the day, we ran out of time.”
But Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, who authored a bill that would have authorized bonds for university projects, said a more concerted effort to block the legislation took place.
“The Legislature can do multiple things at one time,” said Turner, the chairman of the House Higher Education Committee. “Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was opposed to the bill and single-handedly killed the legislation. And as a result of his hostility towards higher education, these critical projects will go undone for at least another two years.”
Alejandro Garcia, a spokesman for Patrick, noted that in 2015, Patrick signed off on over $3 billion in tuition revenue bonds — the first time the Legislature had approved such a package since 2006.
“This session everyone understood we were focused on property tax cuts and K-12 education as our top spending priorities and that TRBs would have to wait until next session,” Garcia wrote in an email.
Legislation fails
Up until the mid-2000s, lawmakers traditionally authorized tuition revenue bonds for colleges about every four years, or every other legislative session, Turner said.
But the last time the state’s public universities saw a flow of funds through a bond package was in 2015. Even then, the bill was long sought-after relief, as lawmakers had struggled to approve bonds for higher education facilities since 2006.
“It’s way overdue,” Turner said. “We were trying to get back on schedule this year.”
That’s why Turner filed House Bill 2000, which would have authorized $3.8 billion in tuition revenue bonds for various projects. The bill was voted out of the House, but it was never heard in the Senate’s Higher Education Committee.
Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, and Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, also filed similar versions of the bond package. But neither of their bills was heard in committee, one of the first steps a bill needs to complete to become law.
Seliger, who was stripped of his leadership positions and not recognized by Patrick to bring his bills before the Senate this session, said he didn’t think Patrick’s animosity was the reason why his bill didn’t make it through.
“As a matter of fact, in this case, I did not think so,” Seliger said. “It was really expensive.”
But despite the package’s overall cost, Seliger stressed that there are emergency items, such as a new social work and nursing building at UT Arlington, that he said need to be addressed sooner rather than later.
“They’re all growing,” Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, said of Texas’ public universities. “We’re trying to graduate kids from high school that can go to college, but we’re going to need the facilities to take care of them if they get there.”
UTA is looking at options, spokesman Joe Carpenter said. Paul Corliss, a University of North Texas System spokesman, said needs will likely have to go unmet until the Legislature passes a tuition revenue bond bill in the future.
Ultimately, Seliger said he thinks public universities will find a way.
“To be perfectly honest, the University of Texas System and the Texas A&M System have enough money to do anything they want,” Seliger said.
Infrastructure needs
As part of five key issues on the university’s “funding front burner,” Tarleton initially requested $72 million to construct a new agricultural and natural resources building on its Stephenville campus and $70 million for a second building on its new Fort Worth campus.
The agricultural building was intended to replace one that was built in the 1950s. The second building on Tarleton’s southwest Fort Worth campus would house the school’s College of Education and School of Kinesiology, in addition to laboratory and office space, McGregor said.
With a donation of 80 acres of land from the Walton Group in 2014, Tarleton has slowly transformed what was once a green field into the beginnings of a full-fledged campus along the Chisholm Trail Parkway.
But without the green light from the Legislature to issue bonds, Tarleton is looking at alternative sources of revenue in hopes that the Fort Worth campus’ timeline is not disrupted. The Fort Worth campus is set to begin classes this fall, with roughly 2,000 students already enrolled, McGregor said.
“We have momentum. We don’t want to slow that down,” McGregor said. “We’re working with the A&M system, as well as working with donors on external funding in Fort Worth, to still make that building a priority and bring it to fruition.”
Rep. Craig Goldman, R-Fort Worth, said the Chisholm Parkway campus is a “huge gain” for the city.
“I will continue to do anything and everything that I can to help see that they continue to grow,” said Goldman, whose district encompasses the campus.
The university’s enrollment in Fort Worth has grown by an average of 16.5% per year, growing from 434 in the fall of 2006 to 1,722 in the fall of 2015, according to the school’s Fort Worth master plan. And if all goes well, the new campus could host as many as 5,000 students by 2025.
Sen. Beverly Powell, D-Burleson, whose district includes the new Fort Worth campus, said she hopes to see bonds approved for it in the next legislative session in 2021.
“We’re one of the fastest growing regions in the state of Texas. And with that comes the need to prepare our workforce for meaningful jobs,” Powell said. “It’s really important for us to continue to stay focused on this and make sure that when the 87th legislative session rolls around, that we’re prepared to bring the legislation necessary to get this job done.”
