THURSDAY JANAURY 29, 2015 VOLUME 104 ISSUE 50
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Enrollment growth dictates legislative priorities for Texas State By Bleah B. Patterson NEWS REPORTER @missbleahp The Texas 84th Legislative session has begun, and university officials hope to receive more funding as enrollment continues to rise. Texas educators will take concerns and proposals to their districts’ representatives during legislative sessions, and the delegates will present them before Congress. The Higher Education Assistance Fund (HEAF), which is granted to state public universities, is at stake. This fund would not go to the University of Texas and Texas A&M, which collect their own grants from the state exclusively. The amount allotted is chosen once every decade and reevaluated every five, said Bill Nance, vice president of Finance and Support Services. The university was last evaluated in 2010 and is due for a new allotment of funds. University officials hope the spike in student population will mean additional funding for Texas State, Nance said. The university has experienced a spike in enrollment in the last five years, Nance said. Nance anticipates a funding increase between $3 million and $8 million per year depending on which Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) proposal is passed into legislature. Nance said gaining the financial support necessary to construct two new academic buildings is a priority for the university. Texas State needs an increase in tuition revenue bonds in order to fund construction of the buildings, Nance said. “We are planning two buildings—an engineering and science building for the San Marcos campus and a health professionals building for the Round Rock campus,” he said. Many universities and colleges in the state pushed for bills to fund new buildings during the last legislative session, he said. However, they failed the day before the session ended. Nance is hopeful the bill paving the way for new buildings will pass during the 84th session. “We’re really hoping for support to build these new buildings this time around,” said Eugene Bourgeois, university provost. Building new facilities on campus is imperative in order for the university to keep up with a rising student population, Bourgeois said. “Recent growth in enrollment means we’ve run out of space,” Nance said. “The engineering program is full—completely out of space—and they cannot take any more admissions.” Bourgeois agrees with Nance, acknowledging the growing health and nursing programs need more space. Constructing a new building at the Round Rock campus is
See ENROLLMENT, Page 2
MADELYNNE SCALES PHOTO EDITOR Jess Liao, San Marcos resident, poses Jan. 21 at Jo on the Go. The wall shown is covered in photos of locals who have been visiting the coffee shop since its 1999 opening.
San Martians fear city losing authenticity By Jon Wilcox NEWS REPORTER @thrilcox
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owntown construction is slated to be finished by summer, but some local residents say San Marcos has already lost its “small-town feel.” Population growth, along with what some residents feel are superfluous development projects, have taken away the city’s small community feeling. City hall commissioned three downtown construction projects last year. The renovation plans involve full street
reconstruction on LBJ Drive and Hutchison Street, new water and wastewater lines, widened sidewalks and the addition of bike lanes. According to U.S. census data, an eight percent population growth rate between June 2012 and June 2013 made San Marcos the fastestgrowing mid-size city in the nation. Some long-settled locals say the growth is eroding the city’s sense of community and its leisurely atmosphere.
Laurie Moyer, director of Engineering and Capital Improvement for the city, said construction projects throughout San Marcos have increased in response to the growing population and the resulting demands on infrastructure. “We definitely will continue to see a substantial amount of construction on city projects in the community based upon our 10-year capital improvement program,” Moyer said. “We’re just kicking that off. There are a lot of projects on the horizon that have been identified.” Moyer understands the im-
pact of construction on everyday citizens’ lives, but hopes residents will recognize the importance in creating and maintaining a healthy city infrastructure. Jeffrey Kender remembers San Marcos as smaller and “sleepyslow” in 2000 when he first arrived from Houston. It was not long before he became an active member of the community and opened the city’s first food trailer, The Tin Box. “At first I did not like this town,” Kender said. “I didn’t understand it. It was a small town, and for me
See GROWTH, Page 2
DENISE CATHEY ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
ECONOMY
Consistently falling gas prices benefit San Marcos
By Jake Goodman NEWS REPORTER @jakethegoodman Gas prices have been falling for two months, helping commuters and students living on campus save money. The lower gas prices can be attributed to several factors, said Joni Charles, associate professor of finance and economics. Causes include new technology like hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, increased domestic production of petroleum that coincides with decreasing reliance on production in politically unstable countries and reduced global demand. The price of gas has fallen from $3.55 per gallon to $1.25 per gallon in only 90 days, said Bernie Bowden, owner of seven Pac-NSac gas stations in San Marcos. The price of gas was $90 a barrel two months ago. The cost was fore-
Ray Vasquez fills up his truck Jan. 26 at The Yellow Store.
See GAS PRICES, Page 2
ANDRES J RODRIGUEZ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
See GAS PRICES, Page 2
CITY
Holiday season peak time for shoppers at Tanger Outlets By Rebecca Banks NEWS REPORTER @r_banks13
JOHNEL ACOSTA STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER The Tanger Outlets attracted two million local and international shoppers this past holiday season.
Tanger Outlets profited from shoppers’ holiday spirit in 2014, bringing in two million customers during November and December alone. John Lairsen, general manager of Tanger Outlets, said the holiday season is the busiest time of the year for international shoppers to visit the outlet mall. “The December numbers are just through the roof,” said Lairsen. “It was an incredible holiday season.” San Marcos received a 5.9 percent increase in sales tax revenue in 2014 from the previous year. The city received $2,243,976.99 million in sales tax revenue from No-
vember 2014 to January. San Marcos received $2,119,843.98 million, over $100,000 less, during the same time span the previous year. Rebecca Ybarra-Ramirez, executive director at the San Marcos Convention and Visitor Bureau, said the outlet malls account for 45 percent of the total collected sales tax for the city. “This past year most of our customers (were) from Mexico,” said Maria Falcon, manager at Tax Free Shopping. An estimated 87 percent of customers come to San Marcos from Mexico for the outlets, Falcon said. “With $500, (the shoppers) can probably only get 10 items in Mexico, but over here, with the same amount and same product, they’re going to
double the amount of items they purchase,” Falcon said. Tax Free Shopping had a 30 percent increase of customers from China between 2013 and 2014, she said. “We saw a big increase in Chinese customers because there are more direct flights from Shanghai to Dallas or Houston,” Falcon said. An estimated 80 percent of customers visiting Rue21 are international shoppers, said Bradley Tanksley, assistant manager. “In our store in general, just because we’re the outlet, we do really well in clearance,” Tanksley said. “A lot of people come to our clearance just because we have so much of it.” Rue21 remained busy during Black
See OUTLETS, Page 2