The 87th Texas Legislature will meet at the state’s capitol at noon Tuesday to begin its 140 days of lawmaking.
This year will likely be different as the coronavirus pandemic has not only altered social distance guidelines but also affected the economy of the state signaling budget cuts.
UTRGV Vice President of Governmental and Community Relations, Veronica Gonzales, explains why a state budget might look different this year.
“This time we’re a little nervous because frankly with the pandemic and with oil and gas going down, the budget is going to be constrained and we are expecting that there is going to be less money and you’ve got a lot of mouths and a smaller pie,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales said while UTRGV is not allowed to lobby legislators, they are allowed to inform and educate on the priorities the university has before a final budget is set.
“The things that are so important to us are financial aid and work-study. What we call tuition revenue bonds, it’s funding to help us build buildings, our medical school, all of those things…and really educate them on those needs we have because they will set that budget and once the budget is set we live with it for the next couple of years.”
The Texas Legislature only meets once during every odd year. Professor of Political Science Clyde Barrow explains why.
“The short answer is because it’s written into the Constitution,” Barrow said. “Our current constitution was written in 1876. It was primarily written by ex-Confederates who were terrified by the prospects of the strong central government…it was purposely an effort to limit the capacity of the state government to govern.”
Legislators will have 140 days to pass bills filed in both the House and Senate into law. Barrow says only a few of thousands of bills filed are considered.
He said as of now it’s too early in the session to keep a track of any significant bills.
“It probably won’t be clear for another month or two, which of those bills are going to rise to the top and what the legislative agenda of the top leadership will be,” Barrow said.
Gonzales explains how UTRGV prepares for legislative sessions.
“We start gearing up for the legislative session months and months in advance,” she said. “We create a document called ‘Legislative Appropriations Request’, it’s really a book we submit, and it has information on all the requests we have and then those get submitted…. The full session is very critical to universities across the state.”
Barrow said appropriations, or funds for a specific purpose, from the state budget cover operating expenses at UTRGV such as faculty and staff salaries among other things.
“It of course funds things like department operating budgets which would be the photocopiers, office supplies, new computers, basic operating expenses,” he said.
This is the first in our series covering the Texas Legislature. For more on legislative news, visit utrgvradio.com.
For Vaquero News, I’m Justin Elizalde.
