CANYON, TEXAS -- The following report was release from lubbockonline.com and written by Enrique Rangel
Texas Tech is getting $188 million a year in the next biennium, while the university's Health Sciences Center will get $175 million in fiscal year 2010 and $179 million the following year. West Texas A&M University will get $40 million in each of the next two fiscal years.
Those are the amounts included in the $182 billion budget for the next two years that the Texas House of Representatives, by a 142-2 vote, approved Friday afternoon, the same budget that the Senate unanimously approved the day before.
The two-year budget, the only piece of legislation the Legislature must pass every two years when the lawmakers are in session, now goes to Gov. Rick Perry's desk for his signature.
In all, the entire Tech system got about a 4 percent increase in funding compared to the 2007 session, said Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, who as a member of the Senate Finance Committee played a key role in crafting the budget for the school.
"The Texas Tech University System, including the health sciences centers, San Angelo (Angelo State University) and Tech, performed very well in the budget," Duncan said. "This is a tighter budget here, we didn't do as many special items, but overall it is a healthy budget for Texas Tech.
"The biggest win, in my view, for Texas Tech this session is the accomplishment of this new concept of national research university status," Duncan added. "Texas Tech performs very well under the criteria contained in House Bill 51."
HB 51 by Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, which includes proposals that Duncan and Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, filed in separate bills, would pave the way for Tech and six other major universities in the state to get the prestigious designation commonly called tier-one or flagship.
House members were just as pleased with what the public colleges and universities in the Panhandle/South Plains region received.
"I think, considering the circumstances, we did a pretty good job," said Rep. Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, a member of the House Appropriations Committee.
"It's been a tough budget year because of the economic downturn," said Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo. "So, in light of that, it is a reasonable amount."
Tech Chancellor Kent Hance said he was also happy with what Tech got.
"I've spent a lot of time trying to make sure the system budget was more than it was in the past," Hance said. "We wanted to be treated like the University of Houston and all the other schools."
Besides the amounts Tech and the Health Sciences Center are getting, Angelo State University, which in 2007 joined the Tech system, will be getting $33.9 million in the 2010 fiscal year and $34 million the following year.
In addition to those amounts, the Tech system and West Texas A&M, like all other public universities in the state, got extra money from the federal stimulus package, said Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock. So, the entire two-year package is about $800 million.
"We didn't get everything we asked for but no one ever does, so all things considered Tech and our schools did very well," Jones said.
Rey Garcia, president of the Texas Association of Community Colleges, said although he didn't remember the percentage increase the two-year schools got, overall the 50-school system fared just as well.
"The Legislature did a reasonable job of appropriating additional funds to account for the enrollment growth at community colleges," Garcia said. "The funding we received covered everything that we had been anticipating and protected those institutions that had a slight decline, so overall the appropriations to the community colleges are very good given the circumstances.