Contact: Monty Jones, (512) 499-4363

Date: November 11, 1999

UT System News Release

Regents Adopt $1.86 Billion Capital Improvement Program

DALLAS – A six-year capital improvement program totaling $1.86 billion was adopted Thursday (Nov. 11) by the Board of Regents of the University of Texas System.

The CIP, which is revised and extended by the regents every two years, encompasses 134 projects, including $1.35 billion worth of new construction projects and $505 million worth of repair and rehabilitation projects. Some projects have been continued from the previous six-year program.

The regents also approved a $947.4 million capital budget for fiscal years 2000 and 2001, the first two years of the CIP.

Funding for the capital budget comes from revenue bonds (36.2%); institutional funds, such as designated tuition, fees, and hospital revenues (25.3%); tuition revenue bonds (19.1%); gifts and grants (14.4%); Permanent University Fund bonds (4.3%); and general revenue appropriations (0.1%).

The documents approved by the regents Thursday were prepared before last week’s constitutional amendment election, in which voters passed an amendment to modernize the investment and spending policies of the Permanent University Fund. The CIP may be revised at the regents’ meeting in February 2000 to reflect additional PUF bonding capacity that will result from passage of the amendment.

Among the U.T. System’s nine general academic universities, the CIP includes project costs of $521.1 million at U.T. Austin; $85.7 million at U.T. San Antonio; $53 million at U.T. El Paso; $46.4 million at U.T. Pan American; $37.6 million at U.T. Arlington; $29.8 million at U.T. Permian Basin; $24.5 million at U.T. Brownsville; $24.2 million at U.T. Dallas; and $11.3 million at U.T. Tyler.

For the system’s six health institutions, the CIP includes projects with costs of $426.9 million at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston; $241.4 million at the U.T. Health Science Center at Houston; $151.5 million at U.T. Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas; $96.7 million at the U.T. Medical Branch at Galveston; $88.8 million at the U.T. Health Science Center at San Antonio; and $20 million at the U.T. Health Center at Tyler.

The CIP and the two-year budget are approved for planning purposes. Each major construction project must be brought to the board for individual approval.