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...while Texas Gov. Cuts $54.5M for Academic Research

June 27, 2003

As many states are striving to increase their academic research capacity in areas that will strengthen long-term economic competitiveness, the governor of the Lone Star State is pursuing an alternate course that closely resembles traditional business recruitment and retention models.

Using his line-item veto power, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed on June 22 a state budget that eliminates $54.5 million for programs designed to encourage university research. Texas' state budget now is void of the $22.5 million that was appropriated for each of the Texas Excellence Fund (TEF) and University Research Fund (URF) and the $9.5 million allocated for the state's Advanced Research Program (ARP).

Remaining in the budget is the $295 million Texas Enterprise Fund the Governor requested for use as a discretionary incentive/inducement fund to help attract and retain employers and jobs in Texas.

Both TEF and URF were created in 2001 by the Texas Legislature to improve research capacity at universities other than those in the large University of Texas (UT) and Texas A&M systems. TEF funding would have come from the earnings of the state's Permanent Higher Education Fund, but appropriations for the URF would have come directly from general revenue and still allowed more than $76.2 million in savings over fiscal years 2004-05.

ARP and the state's Advanced Technology Program (ATP) were created by the Texas Legislature in 1987 as competitive, peer-reviewed grant programs to fund scientific and engineering research projects of faculty members at Texas higher education institutions. ARP and ATP had been funded at about $20 million and $40 million, respectively, per biennium. Combined, the sister programs span 17 different research areas. ATP will continue as scheduled, but its 2004-05 budget has been sliced roughly in half to $19.4 million.

In a win for larger public universities, the Texas state budget does allow schools to retain 100 percent of their Indirect Cost Recovery for research purposes. In the past, a portion of indirect costs recovered through federal grants had to be returned to the state coffers. The impact, the Austin American-Statesman reports, means Texas universities will be able to keep $86.4 million in grants funds. The University of Texas (UT) is the biggest winner in the deal, retaining an estimated $40 million over the next two years. Additionally, while larger schools such as Prairie View A&M, Texas A&M and UT will continue to receive special research funding through the Permanent University Fund, most Texas colleges do not share in the fund.

The 2004-05 budget will take effect at the beginning of the new biennium on Sept. 1, 2003. More information, including a line-item veto statement, is available at: http://www.governor.state.tx.us/

Texas