“Today, Chairman Burrows and I filed constitutional amendments to reform the Permanent University Fund," Perry said. "In existence for over 130 years, the PUF Fund has distributed billions to two universities.”
“Burrows added: “It is past time to equitably fund all of the state’s higher education institutions that came into existence after 1883; the State of Texas certainly possesses the wealth and resources to do so.”
“Burrows said PUF benefits from resources across a wide swath of Texas, but Texas Tech, the University of Houston, Texas State University the University of North Texas and others receive nothing.“
Thank you for posting averroes.
Maybe just maybe some water is going to start boiling. This is the biggest Texan education news for decades. It is clear that the utau pimp has upset his closest ally.
I know many of us on the forum are very interested in this extremely important issue. The financial distributions of PUF to UT and TAMU is so egregiously unfair and is shocking that it continues to this day.
Approximately five years ago I was aware that President Khator and her team had been working on getting other universities to group together in order to gain access to the PUF.
I’m not sure what happened with that but President Khator continues the work on getting increased funding from the state of Texas for UH.
But, getting access to PUF is another story. She has very good working relations with Governor Abbott, incidentally.
I do know that UH had a political action committee which was under the Chairmanship of Welcome Wilson, Sr. Tilman Fertitta was also quite involved as well. They were trying to increase UH presence in the Texas legislature so if a vote to amend the Texas Constitution came about we might better prevail. As most know, we need to amend constitution to get access to PUF.
I thought Mr Wilson was doing a fantastic job but he retired a couple of years ago and the PAC has been dormant, to my knowledge, ever since. UH is working on replacing him with someone who has great connections and is motivated, etc.
My hope springs eternal!
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Duce630
(DustinK - I Stand With Israel - Bring Them Home)
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What are the steps needed to amend the Texas constitution on this? I know it is typically a longshot.
As much as I would like to see this happen, I think the chances of success here are low. Not even all the UT and A&M system components are even allowed to taste the sweet nectar. Not sure how amending the Texas constitution works exactly , but I’d guess it takes some type of majority in house and senate and governor’s signature. One would need to look at all members school affiliation to see what the numbers look like. But I know our last 2 governors have been a horn and an aggie. That could gum up any numerical advantage that may exist in house and senate. Or maybe it’s put on ballot to be voted on ?
Having said all that, I think it’s important to fight the fight, if just to make the public aware and keep the 2 hogs from becoming even more audacious in their adventures.
The amendments require a vote of two-thirds of the entire membership in each house for adoption.
Joint resolutions are not sent to the governor for approval, but are filed directly with the secretary of state.
A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Texas Constitution does not become effective until it is approved by Texas voters in a general election.
That is what would benefit more people in this state (AND the state as a whole) versus what would continue to benefit a very select and underachieving and overrated few.
Oh yeah JohnnyCougar I totally agree with you. As I stated above, this current situation with the PUF is so obviously and egregiously unfair I’m shocked that it is still in place. It boggles the mind. So many more schools and students would benefit from the shared resources from our Texas University fund.
Without knowing the numbers, I wonder what percentage of UT alum and friends there are in Texas. That school keeps churning them out year after year. They would fight tooth and nail to keep the status quo and most likely be successful in shutting it down
Too many people have an “us versus them” with people of their own citizenry.
I’ll leave it at that so as not to venture into forbidden subjects that ruffles feathers, disturbs confirmation bias and awakes blissful ignorance.
On a side note:
How many Aggies think of themselves as Aggies first and Texans second? I better stop right now before I get in trouble but I think everyone knows the point I’m trying to make without bringing up forbidden subjects.