Cuts to Texas universities advance through Senate finance

A new proposal for the Senate’s higher education budget changes the framework for how Texas funds its public universities, eliminating funding for individual special items but adding more money to the formula funding pot.

Overall, the Senate's plan will cut back on the money given to colleges and universities. The Chronicle’s Mike Ward was at the Senate finance panel on Wednesday and reports that universities will see either a 10-percent or a 6-percent drop in their funding.

The passed budget distributes to universities $700 million more in formula funding, which is based largely on enrollment, instead of funding individual “special items,” a separate avenue that lawmakers have used for decades to fund projects at colleges and universities.

The full Senate must now approve the budget as presented by the finance committee, and then legislators will negotiate with House members to merge the two proposals.

The Senate’s first take on the budget cut special item funding without an influx of new formula funding and saw more severe cuts.

Sen. Kel Seliger, the Republican from Amarillo who leads the Senate’s higher education committee, called the proposal “proportional” and “reliable” on Wednesday. A system based heavily on individual special item funding allows institutions to benefit from favoritism from lawmakers, he said.

Critics of special items on the finance committee argue that items, once approved, are rarely reviewed. Programs that receive special item funding as “start-ups,” they said, were funded session after session.

“At some point,” Seliger said, “you should have started.”