State budget writers talk about selling School for Deaf property
February 9, 2015
By Kiah Collier / American-Statesman Staff
Texas Senate budget writers on Monday discussed the possibility of downsizing or selling the 67-acre property south of downtown Austin where the School for the Deaf has operated for more than 150 years in an effort to raise revenue and cut costs.
State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, launched the discussion by asking school officials whether they could run the operation on a smaller property.
State Sens. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, and Kirk Watson, D-Austin serve on the Senate Finance Committee “You’re sitting on some of the most expensive land in Austin,” he said, calling for a study “of the most efficient use of such acreage” in the city.
“For 159 years,” responded School for the Deaf Superintendent Claire Bugen.
Whitmire went on to suggest the state could pay for the campus’ significant deferred maintenance needs if the property was sold or downsized; Bugen said the school probably could operate on less than 46 acres.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said selling even a few acres of the property could net “double-digit millions.”
Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, did not object to the discussion but said his colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee should proceed cautiously and expressed concern that any money from the sale of the property stay with the school.
The former Austin mayor, joking that he’s already received calls from 150 developers about the property, said the state could inadvertently create huge traffic and other development problems by selling such a large chunk of land in the heart of the city. However, he also said that any money generated could be used to mitigate it.
“It’s very important that the money stay with the School for the Deaf, but it also may be very important that the money may be utilized to mitigate things like traffic problems that the state would turn right around and create for the city of Austin,” Watson said.
The discussion comes as lawmakers consider whether to close the Austin State Supported Living Center, located on high-value property in Tarrytown. In 2013, the Texas General Land Office recommended selling the 93-acre tract, but has since changed its mind.
Talk quickly turned to the deaf school’s deferred maintenance needs Monday, which the committee discussed last week — aghast at reports of “rodents, bats, bed bugs” and other health and safety concerns.
Committee Chairwoman Jane Nelson, however, was less sympathetic this go-around saying she had asked her staff to pull the school’s budget requests from the last decade and questioned officials about why they had not yet fixed things like flooding manholes, even though they received money for it.
“How does that happen?” the Flower Mound Republican asked.
“We had to prioritize what we fixed,” said Gary Bego, director of financial and support operations, explaining that the school didn’t have enough money to do it all. Later, he said it was “because things happen.”
That didn’t go over well with some committee members like Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, who said “Stuff happens — I get it” but asked the Legislative Budget Board how lawmakers could be assured that money is being spent on things for which it was appropriated.