Texas community colleges will get $154 million to pay for employees’ health insurance under an agreement reached Tuesday by Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick.
Community college officials have been warning of property tax increases, tuition increases and educational program cuts to compensate for $154 million in funds Perry vetoed this summer. In announcing their agreement, the leaders asked college officials to rescind tuition, fee or tax increases adopted for this year or any planned for next year that were designed to offset the original veto.
Perry has said he vetoed the money because lawmakers put provisions into the budget forbidding use of state money for benefits of employees whose salaries are paid with local money. The new money will only go to community college employees who are paid with state funds.
Colleges also will get a one-time payment of $55 million next year to help transition into the proposed changes. The leaders also agreed to work toward a new incentive program for colleges.
“I am encouraged that we … were also able to place a greater emphasis on achievement through incentive funding,” Perry said. “Community colleges are an integral part of our higher education system in Texas and, through incentive funding, we can begin to hold all our institutions of higher education accountable for the students they produce rather than just those they enroll.”
Since Perry’s veto, the issue has become a political football.
