RANEY WANTS RE-VOTE OF BLINN BOARD’S VOTE ON COMPROMISE

  

State Representative John Raney is questioning the vote by the Blinn College Board of Trustees on Tuesday night concerning state funding of the Blinn College Campus, and that a re-vote should be taken.

The Blinn Board voted 3 to 3 on Tuesday to not approve a compromise proposal to Raney’s House Bill 1903, which would change how state funding is distributed to all of the Blinn campuses. A tie vote means the measure had failed.

House Bill 1903 would base funding on student contact hours, with the Blinn Bryan campus having the most students, that the money would stay in Bryan to fund that campus and not be used at all on the Brenham campus.

Raney sent a letter to Blinn Board Chairman Doug Borchardt on Wednesday, expressing his concern that Borchardt knew the seventh board member Atwood Kenjura would not make it back from traveling, and could possibly break the tie vote, but decided to hold the vote anyway. Borchart says that he conducted the vote after he was satisfied that all the present members of the Board had a chance to discuss their views on the subject.

Kenjura had mentioned that he would try to get to the meeting in time for the vote.

Raney also says that Borchardt changed his views on the way he would vote, and that a re-vote should be taken.

Borchardt believes Raney’s plan is an “overreach of state government that significantly erodes local control.”