AUSTIN Lawmakers stepped closer to creating a major university and medical school in South Texas, with proponents saying the institutions would not take money from other Texas universities that might share a funding source.

The House Higher Education Committee held the first hearing on House Bill 1000, legislation that would create the school within the University of Texas system.

Were on the precipice of what could be one of the most significant developments in South Texas, said state Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, an author of the bill.

More than a dozen state representatives and senators have joined to author bills in the Texas House and Senate to make a new University of Texas System university with a medical school.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry called for a new university in South Texas that would have access to the Permanent University Fund, a source of money reserved only for University of Texas and Texas A&M systems.

The bill enjoys broad support from lawmakers both Democratic and Republican.

State Rep. Ren Oliveira, D-Brownsville, is the primary House author, and he said he expects the bill will sail through, but he noted the two-thirds vote necessary to approve Permanent University Fund money may not be an easy task.

The university would have campuses at UT-Pan American and UT-Brownsville, which havent been eligible for the university funds.

Brownsville is near the Rio Grande estuary in far south Texas, and UT-Pan American is in Edinburg, about 65 miles upriver from Brownsville and adjacent to McAllen.

Oliveira said the new university wouldnt take funds from the other schools benefiting from the PUF.

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South Texas medical school closer to possibility