WACO, Texas (KXXV) — One school on thousands of Texan’s minds right now, campaigning, fundraising and advocating for Texas State Technical College.
“It is an all hands on deck effort,” Mike Meroney, vice chairman of Texans for TSTC.
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Meroney is helping lead the charge as vice chairman of Texans for TSTC, a Special Purpose Political Action Committee. It's a brand new coalition full of business trade associates, companies, TSTC alumni and more who are all basically people and organizations that rely on TSTC graduates advocating to get Proposition 1 passed.
“I’ll tell yeah, Texas is facing a serious skilled labor shortage and TSTC is equipped to close the gaps,” Meroney said.
So let’s break down Proposition 1 and, if passed, how it helps TSTC.
What to know:
Proposition 1 TX SJR 59 and how it reads on the ballot: "The constitutional amendment providing for the creation of the permanent technical institution infrastructure fund and the available workforce education fund to support the capital needs of educational programs offered by the Texas State Technical College System."
As a state agency, TSTC leaders said they are not reliant on local property taxes and they can’t put out a bond for voters - to help fund capital projects - like other schools can.
As of right now, its sources of revenue comes from student tuition and the state of Texas but for operational costs.
Proposition 1 would create an endowment allowing for funds to be used for capital costs.
If passed, TSTC is looking at millions of dollars for things like new facilities, buildings, equipment, modernization and upgrades on campuses similar to what visitors and students can see on the Waco campus.
A new building that will house and increase their building and construction trades by 30% once it opens next year and that’s according to Joe Arnold, the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Government Relations.
“Many of our programs are at capacity. We can’t add anymore unless we add space to do that. So this would allow us to be able to respond better to the workforce needs in the state of Texas" he said.
Arnold said Proposition 1 allows for more stable funding for them thus helping Texas’ workforce demands now and in the future.
He added, “you know there’s over a million open jobs right now that need technicians - It’s gonna allow us to finally be able to plan our growth and our response to business and industry.”
Proposition 1 will be one of 17 propositions on the Nov. 4 ballot.
