Lawmakers, SFA official explain the local impact of new legislation

By MICHELE MARCOTTE

The Daily Sentinel

Friday, June 22, 2007

SFA photo by Hardy Meredith
Deborah S. Baisden, SFA vice president for finance and administration, state Rep. Wayne Christian, R-Center, and state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, present a legislative wrap-up at the Fourth Friday Luncheon at The Fredonia.

There was some good, bad and ugly emerged from this past legislative session, State Rep. Wayne Christian, R-Center said during the chamber of commerce's Fourth Friday luncheon.
Speaking alongside state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville and Deborah S. Baisden, SFA vice president for finance and administration, Christian helped explain some of the new legislation that could affect local residents.

Deborah S. Baisden, SFA vice president for finance and administration, state Rep. Wayne Christian, R-Center, and state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, present a legislative wrap-up at the Fourth Friday Luncheon at The Fredonia.

Among the good things to come out of the 80th Legislature was the passage of a bill that will enable SFA to issue $13 million in tuition revenue bonds to fund construction of a campus nursing facility.

Christian and the other two speakers made a point to comment on their amazement of the bill's passage, since prior to the session, lawmakers asserted that tuition revenue bonds would not be issued during the 80th session.

"I filed in the senate and it was immediately buried," Nichols said of SB 1782. "Then Wayne used his expertise to wiggle it through, and when it came back over I knew I couldn't screw it up."

Baisden said the university was grateful for both Nichols' and Christian's efforts.

"If it were not for (the passage of the bill), our nursing program would struggle to meet the demands of our nursing students," she said.

In addition, Baisden said the $100 million appropriation bill that was passed for the higher education coordinating board could be an asset to SFA.

"It (the funding) will be distributed based on higher education incentives in the next fiscal year 2009," she said. "It's an incentive to increase performance (at the college level)."

Meanwhile, Nichols and Christian agreed the biomass bill not making it out of the Senate was the most disappointing part of the past session.

"It passed two times in the house and went through two committees," Christian said, referring to the bill. "That says something."

The bill, which would have benefitted a proposed $300 million biomass power plant in Nacogdoches County, may not have made it through the Senate, but Nichols said he was proud to support it while it was there, and believes it would have been a beneficial part of the community.

Nacogdoches Economic Development Corporation President Judy McDonald, who was among the more than 100 residents present at the event, thanked both officials for their role in the project, and said their efforts would be well worth it.

"We're not through with it," she said of the biomass project. "We will get that power plant."

The state budget also had some adjustments that will affect county jails, Christian said.

"It (the budget) will be fully funding mental health in our county jails and in the state," he said.
He said, in addition, the budget will enable the state to spend at a slower pace and in the long run, set aside more money for the future.