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Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF)
| In 1995 "the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF) was created to fund telecommunications initiatives and distance learning projects in schools, libraries and hospitals throughout the state in the form of grants and loans."(*) The Texas State Legislature decided that telephone companies would pay for TIF, but also that TIF would expire after ten years. (Vernon's Texas Codes Annotated, Utilities Code, § 57) |
| TIF has provided educational resources worth $100,000,000s to libraries and schools across the state during the past decade. It has provided people in small schools and rural communities with the same access to materials that people in the largest cities and best universities have. It allows students at one school to take classes from another school, or to take classes from home. Students in the Lower Rio Grande Valley have access to research materials and computers on a par with any in the country, thanks to TIF. |
| TIF has provided many benefits to the University of Texas-Pan
American and the UTPA Library. For example, in 2001 the UTPA
Library was awarded a grant to purchase computer hardware and software
to help students, including: 1 Media audio listening center and headphones 1 microfilm/microfiche scanner 3 laser printers 4 microfilm readers 10 tape recorders with microphones 24 Reference computers 25 wireless laptop computers 37 Classroom computers graphics software |
| TIF also funds TexShare, which provides dozens of databases for the Library. The Library has saved $100,000s by getting databases from TexShare; we would not have been able to afford the databases without TexShare. |
| TIF also funds the Center for Distance Learning at UTPA. TIF
funds were used to establish the CDL, and they have been used to
purchase and maintain hardware and software ever since,
including: 1 digital camera 2 printers 8 computer work stations 12 personal computers 16 servers 20 laptop computers WebCT software other computer hardware, software, and training |
| Altogether, the Center for Distance Learning has received TIF grants worth over $800,000 during the past few years, and the University Library has received grants worth over $400,000 during that time (in addition to the databases.) We would not be able to provide the equipment and services UTPA faculty, staff, and students have come to expect without TIF. |
| The statute that created TIF not only provided that long distance telephone companies, mobile phone companies, etc., would pay for TIF, but also allowed those companies to pass those charges on to the consumer. TIF charges of a few cents are added to the telephone bill every month for Texas residents. |
| When the legislature enacted TIF, it included a "sunset provision." (V.T.C.A. Utilities Code § 57.051) That means that if the legislature does not renew TIF, it will be abolished, and UTPA (as well as the rest of the state) will no longer get the benefits of TIF funds. |
| For more information about the Telecommunications Infrastructure
Fund and TexShare, see: Texas Statutes Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund TIF Board Texas Library Association - Telecommunications Infrastructure Policy TIF Resources Fiscal Notes: Spreading the Wealth Go Beyond the Internet with TexShare |
| Circulation Department Contact: (956) 381-3306 |
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vcarrillo
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last modified
12-11-2006 10:45