Your Vote Counts 2023: Proposition 5

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – As you get ready to head to the polls on November 7th, there are a few propositions on the ballot you should be aware of.

Proposition 5 is a measure on this year’s ballot that would impact four emerging research universities that don’t benefit from the Permanent University Fund.

The four include Texas Tech University, the University of Houston, Texas State University, and the University of North Texas.

If passed, this proposition will create a new fund called the Texas University Fund, or TUF, to fund these specific research universities.

Jason Smith, the Vice President of Government and Community Relations at the University of Houston says this will bring more Texas universities to the forefront of academics.

“Creating the new fund called the Texas University fund, or the TUF, the idea is to have something for those universities that are not part of the Permanent University Fund, which is something the Texas A&M system and the UT system both have access to, and the reason why they are ranked so highly is because they have this PUF,” said Smith.

“We only today have about three institutions that are routinely counted among the top 200 universities in the world, and frankly that is just not good enough,” said Harrison Keller, the Texas Commissioner of Higher Education.

If passed, taxes for Texas citizens will not increase.

“No new taxes, this was created from surplus revenue from this last session. There is about $33 billion that the legislation had. They took a portion of that, $3 billion from that and there are no taxes going forward,” said Smith.

Ultimately, Smith and Keller say investing in the state’s higher education will invest in the state’s future.

“This investment from the state will allow us to have greater opportunities for students to attend high-quality universities in our state,” said Smith.

“Proposition 5 is to create this new endowment so we have more world-class research universities in Texas to help make sure we stay competitive into the future,” said Keller.