Tilman Fertitta, a billionaire who also serves as chairman of the University of Houston Board of Regents, called the University of Texas System’s purchase of hundreds of acres in Houston a “case of having … too much money.”

“You see what happens to arrogance sometimes. You lose,” he said before the Texas Senate’s nominations committee on Thursday morning.

Sen. Brian Birdwell, a Granbury Republican, asked Fertitta what he would do if faced with competing interests – his university system and Texas’ citizens. He called UT’s decision to purchase the property for more than $200 million “the elephant in the room.”

“That may have been in the best interest of the UT system but maybe not in the best interest of the state of Texas,” he said.

“I answer to three Gods here,” Fertitta responded. “I answer to the Legislature first, the students second and the administration third. And when I say you guys first, that’s the citizens of Texas. If I have an issue with anything, it’s not going to happen.”

He said he wouldn’t have "tried to go around" the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board or the Legislature before big decisions. The University of Houston slammed that deal from the outset as potentially presenting unfair competition for top faculty and students.

“What happened there is the case of someone having PUF funds and too much money,” he said, referring to the permanent university fund, a state-owned investment fund that gives billions to Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin.

UT Chancellor William McRaven called off plans to expand in Houston in March. An advisory group tasked with determining how the system should use the land put forward a 76-page plan for a data science institute focusing on energy, education and health.

Fertitta, who owns one of the nation's largest restaurant companies, has been on the UH board since 2009 and was reappointed in August 2015. He appeared on Thursday morning as a confirmation hearing for that appointment, which occurred after the 2015 legislative session ended.

At the hearing, he said UH must improve campus diversity and its graduation rate. He added later that he didn’t like the premise of tenure, through which full professors cannot be fired without cause.

“You can’t sit on the payroll forever,” he said.

He said bonuses are “the greatest way to motivate people.” He said Renu Khator, chancellor of the University of Houston System, is “underpaid.”

She was the top-paid public university leader in the country in 2015, earning $1.3 million as both chancellor of the system and president of its flagship. Part of that sum was a $200,000 bonus.