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.