84R2875 KEL-D
By: Raney H.B. No. 2138
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the online publication of information regarding campus
expenditures made by junior college districts.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 61.065, Education Code, is amended by
amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsections (c) and (d) to read
as follows:
(a) The comptroller of public accounts and the board jointly
shall prescribe and periodically update a uniform system of
financial accounting and reporting for institutions of higher
education, including definitions of the elements of cost on the
basis of which appropriations shall be made and financial records
shall be maintained. [The board may require institutions to report
additional financial information as the board considers
necessary.] In order that the uniform system of financial
accounting and reporting shall provide for maximum consistency with
the national reporting system for higher education, the uniform
system shall incorporate insofar as possible the provisions of the
financial accounting and reporting manual published by the National
Association of College and University Business Officers. The
accounts of the institutions shall be maintained and audited in
accordance with the approved reporting system.
(c) The board shall adopt rules requiring each junior
college district to publish on the district's website detailed
financial information regarding the expenditures made during each
state fiscal year with respect to each campus maintained by the
district and regarding the source of those expended funds. The
rules must require the information to be published in an accessible
format not later than the 60th day after the end of the applicable
state fiscal year.
(d) The board may require institutions of higher education
to report additional financial information as the board considers
necessary.
SECTION 2. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
shall adopt the rules required by Section 61.065(c), Education
Code, as added by this Act, as soon as practicable after this Act
takes effect. For that purpose, the coordinating board may adopt
the initial rules in the manner provided by law for emergency rules.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2015.