The Texas Legislature is halfway to passage of a tuition revenue bond, or TRB, bill for the first time since 2006. On April 9 representatives in the house approved HB 100, authored by Rep. John Zerwas, R-Simonton, Rep. Trent Ashby, R-Lufkin, Rep. John Otto, R-Dayton, Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston and Rep. Travis Clardy, R-Nacogdoches.

The bill, which would provide more than $2 billion for construction projects at university campuses throughout the state, must be passed in the senate before it can be signed into law.

The senate received the bill on April 13.

The Texas State University System, which includes both Texas State campuses in San Marcos and Round Rock, also includes Lamar State University, Sam Houston State University and Sul Ross University. Under the bills, the Texas State System would receive $256.42 million for construction project. The San Marcos campus would receive $63 million for a new engineering and sciences building.

The engineering and sciences program is one of the fastest-growing programs at the university, officials said. In the mid-2000s enrollment in the Ingram School of Engineering included 62 students. In the spring 2015 semester there were 840 students enrolled.

Bill Nance, Vice President for Finance and Support Services, said he is optimistic about the passage of a tuition revenue bond bill this session.

"We're very pleased that the TRB bill has made progress in both houses. I haven't gone line by line through all the projects in there, but the amounts in there for our two projects are the same in the house and senate versions," Nance said. "That bodes well."

Nance said the university was hoping a TRB bill would pass in the 2013 Legislature, but when the bill stalled and eventually died, construction of the new engineering building was put on hold. A similar outcome this year would be a tough blow, he said. Addition of new disciplines in engineering would have to be put on hold, he said.

"If this bill doesn't pass this session, I'm not sure what we will do academically, because they've had to cap enrollment in the fields that we do have, and we had plans to add civil and environmental engineering—additional disciplines—and there's a long range plan to add disciplines over time," Nance said.

Tuition revenue bonds are bonds that have their debt serviced by revenue from the project for which they are issued. The bonds are typically paid back through tuition paid by students.