Medical school plan still alive
August 20, 2005
Perry to divert $38.5 million to El Paso project. Legislative Budget Board must OK plan
Written by Brandi Grissom, El Paso Times
AUSTIN -- Texas Tech University would get $38.5 million to finish a four-year medical school in El Paso under a budget proposal Gov. Rick Perry made Friday.
"It is high time this state keeps its commitment to these institutions and, I might add also, their commitment to improving health care in the border region of the state," Perry said. He also suggested sending $10 million to Texas A&M University for the Irma Rangel Pharmacy School in Kingsville.
Money for the Texas Tech medical school expansion has been one of the El Paso legislative delegation's top priorities. Local and state officials and Texas Tech representatives were pleased by the announcement, but they emphasized the funding is not yet a certainty.
"Just because the governor says it's going to be done, doesn't mean it will be," said Rep. Pat Haggerty, R-El Paso.
El Paso Mayor John Cook said the funding would be "one of the biggest economic shots in the arm" for the city.
"We might not be popping the champagne bottles yet," Cook said, "but we're chilling them already."
The budget maneuver Perry proposed can be used only when the Legislature is not in session. It allows the use of money vetoed from the state budget for emergency items.
The governor and a majority of Legislative Budget Board members must approve the spending proposal. The board is made up of House Speaker Tom Craddick, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, four House members and four senators.
At a press conference with Cook on Friday, neither Sen. Eliot Shapleigh nor Rep. Norma Chávez, both El Paso Democrats, would say how confident they were that the Legislative Budget Board would approve the money. They agreed, though, that the El Paso delegation must lobby for the money in this final stage.
"Governor Perry has honored his commitment, and that's a huge step," Chávez said. "Now we have to keep a united front to make the medical school a reality for El Paso."
The Legislative Budget Board could adjust, reject or approve Perry's proposal.
"We have contingency plans for just about every situation imaginable," said Jose Manuel de la Rosa, regional dean for the medical school.
Students now attend their last two years of medical school in El Paso, but Texas Tech plans to expand the El Paso campus into a full four-year medical school.
To keep on schedule to open in 2008 for the first class of would-be doctors, Texas Tech officials have said they need about $58 million.
Though construction of the campus is nearly complete, school officials are working to complete the arduous and expensive accreditation process.
De la Rosa said that the $38.5 million Perry proposed would be enough to keep on schedule but that anything less would mean re-evaluating that timeline.
"Right now, were keeping our fingers crossed," he said.
Texas Tech officials have seen state lawmakers give and then take away funding for the medical school several times this year.
The Senate approved funding for the school's completion in the regular legislative session, but House negotiators struck it from the budget shortly before the session ended in May.
In the first special session, the Senate approved a budget bill that included $45 million for startup of the four-year medical school in El Paso.
The House budget-writing committee never brought up the Senate bill with the medical school money during the first special session.
Because of the logjam on school finance, medical school funding was not a priority during the second special session, which ended Friday.
The governor's budget proposal totaled about $656 million. The Legislative Budget Board is expected to meet soon to decide on the final appropriations.
If the money comes through, Texas Tech expects to have about 80 students enroll by fall 2008, de la Rosa said.
"In 1998, this community set a goal to get a four-year medical school going in 10 years," Shapleigh said. "Many people worked very hard, and it seems this will become a reality."
El Paso Times reporter Gustavo Reveles Acosta in El Paso contributed to this report.
Related Stories
Fair Use Notice
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use", you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.