Contact: Monty Jones, (512) 499-4363

Date: August 12, 1999

UT System News Release

Board of Regents Approves Budget for FY 2000

GALVESTON -- A $5.42 billion operating budget for fiscal year 2000 for the 15-campus University of Texas System was approved Thursday (August 12) by the Board of Regents.

The budget includes a $100-per-month across-the-board pay raise for staff members mandated by the Legislature, as well as additional staff and faculty merit raises approved by the regents for each campus. Average increases for faculty range from 3 percent to 8 percent, and average raises for staff range from 3 percent to 9.7 percent.

Total expenditures in the new budget are 9.59 percent higher than in fiscal 1999. The new fiscal year begins Sept. 1.

Of the total, $1.363 billion is financed with General Revenue appropriations (state tax dollars) -- an increase of 9.3 percent over the fiscal 1999 amount of $1.247 billion. This is the largest increase in legislative appropriations in many years.

The percentage of the budget financed with state tax dollars declined slightly, from 25.2 percent in FY 1999 to 25.1 percent in FY 2000.

Among other funding sources in the new operating budget, Educational and General Income (a category that includes tuition, student fees, patient income, and other items), experienced a net increase of 7.08 percent, from $1.070 billion to $1.146 billion.

Other funding sources include physician fees and related funds at health institutions, $639.8 million (up 6.8 percent), and sponsored research and services (the majority of which is funded through federal grants and contracts), $760.1 million (up 5 percent).

The new budgets at the U.T. Health Science Center at San Antonio and the U.T. Health Science Center at Houston reflect a total of $2. 5 million in appropriations for operation of the Regional Academic Health Center in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

Also included is $700,000 for the new Laredo Campus Extension of the U.T. Health Science Center at San Antonio.

The System-wide budget includes $48.5 million in endowment earnings and appropriations related to the state’s tobacco lawsuit settlement. These funds are distributed among the U.T. System’s six health institutions as well as U.T. El Paso.

The base budget for the U.T. System administration in Austin grew 1.9 percent, from $29.6 million to $30.2 million. In addition, the regents approved funds for three new or expanded special initiatives at the System level -- $368,723 for a new Office of Federal Relations, $500,000 for a new Office of Technology Transfer, and $3.6 million in new funds for the UT TeleCampus.

Budget changes at the U.T. System's nine general academic institutions and six health institutions vary because of factors such as enrollment growth, special state programs, different levels of research support, and patient care activities.