Senator asks for community college money

AUSTIN - Brownsville Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. is asking Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to start the process to find extra money for community colleges to compensate for $154 million Gov. Rick Perry vetoed from their budgets.

South Texas College leaders said they would lose $4 million because of Perry’s June 15 veto that the Legislature designated to pay for health benefits of community college professors in 2009.

Perry said community colleges had ignored previous warnings from him and budget writers to stop using too much state money to pay for employee health insurance.

To offset Perry’s veto, either community college district voters will have to agree to pay more taxes or community college students will have to pay bills that could increase as much as 20 percent, STC officials said. Other college districts around the state face similar quandaries.

“It is my hope that under your leadership, and that of your colleagues on the budget board, an expe-dited solution can be developed to assist local communities throughout the state,” Lucio wrote in a June 21 letter to Dewhurst.

Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick are joint chairmen of the 10-member Legislative Budget Board, which recommends to the Legislature every two years how much money every state agency should receive.

The Budget Board also has the authority to make emergency appropriations when it sees fit, but the governor must approve the transfers.

When asked what the chances are of Perry approving a money transfer to pay for the item he just ve-toed, spokesman Robert Black said, “Slim to none.”

Perry called on community colleges to stop using state money to pay health insurance to locally-paid teachers in his 2003 State of the State address, Black said. The Budget Board then warned community colleges of the problem in its report in 2005 to the Legislature.

“The governor’s actions should not come as a surprise to anyone,” Black said.

The governor thinks community colleges should adhere to the same so-called rule of proportionality that other institutions do, Black said. That means if 20 percent of an employee’s salary is paid for with state funds, only 20 percent of his health insurance can come from state coffers.

Perry said community colleges have overstepped their boundaries, even mislead the legislature with their proposed budgets to get the money. Community colleges said they have been honest and in constant dialogue with lawmakers, who approved the money.

Dewhurst said he understands Lucio’s worry, but did not promise to call a meeting of the Budget Board, as Lucio asked. Instead, Dewhurst said in a statement that he wanted to study the formula by which community colleges pay for employee health insurance.

“I share Senator Lucio’s concerns, and fortunately, the budget signed by Governor Perry provides funding for employee benefits through the end of (fiscal year) 2008,” Dewhurst said. “This gives us some time to study this problem in-depth and find a solution that works for community college employees and the students and communities they serve — as well as taxpayers.”