AIRPORT, SCHOOLS MAY GET BOOST

The airport and the school district in Cape Girardeau stand to gain financially from bills passed by the Missouri Legislature during the session that ended Friday.

Lawmakers approved bills that would provide state funding for the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport control tower and increased state aid for the local school district.

The governor must sign the bills before they become law.

The manager of the airport was elated to learn the Missouri Legislature had approved a measure allocating more state revenue to general aviation airports.

The manager, Bruce Loy, had been sweating out the creation of the Aviation Trust Fund over the last days of the legislative session.

Among other things, the trust fund would reimburse Cape Girardeau for up to $125,000 annually for operation of the airport's control tower. That would cover almost all of the cost of operating the tower, Loy said.

The city has been paying the control tower costs since 1996. The federal government previously had paid for its operation.

In addition, the trust fund would provide revenue for grants for capital improvements at general aviation airports around the state.

"We're real happy," Loy said.

Senate action on the measure creating the trust fund was delayed Thursday night by a filibuster. On Friday the bill went into conference as House and Senate members debated sections of the motor fuel tax bill to which the trust-fund clause was attached.

"It's just been kind of up and down," Loy said. "But it finally went through, and we're very appreciative."

He said he has made "lots of phone calls" to local lawmakers to keep track of the bill's progress.

State Rep. Larry Thomason, D-Kennett, the chief sponsor of the original bill that created the trust fund, said there was never anything controversial about creating the fund.

Supporters of the trust fund still have "one small hurdle to go," Thomason said: Gov. Mel Carnahan must sign the bill into law.

Thomason said he doesn't think there will be any problem with that.

"Nobody can find anything that looks controversial that the governor might find so offensive that he'd veto it," he said.

Thomason said the Aviation Trust Fund will be a boon for economic development in smaller communities served by general aviation airports.

Once the bill is signed into law, revenue from the state's jet fuel tax will be allocated into the trust fund. The jet fuel-tax money now goes into the general revenue fund.

The trust fund could add another $4 million to $5 million a year for improvements at more than 100 general aviation airports around the state.

State Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, said lawmakers changed the state formula for funding school districts to address inequities caused by Senate Bill 380. Kinder said the Cape Girardeau School District and others had been penalized under the formula enacted five years ago.

He said the formula changes could provide another $475,000 annually in state funding for the school district.

Superintendent Dr. Dan Tallent said the additional funding could amount to about $250,000 next fiscal year.

He said the district's state aid fluctuates from year to year. With reassessment, the district's assessed valuation has grown by almost 10 percent in the last year.

"We are growing faster than the state's growing in assessed valuation," said Tallent. As a result, state revenue for the district declines each year.

The district currently receives about $2.9 million a year in state aid.

Tallent said the Cape Girardeau School District has suffered financially in recent years because of changes in the funding formula in 1993.

Cape Girardeau is a hold-harmless school district. Under Senate Bill 380, the state said those districts essentially would receive no less amount per pupil than it received in 1993.

Cape Girardeau schools receive about $740 per pupil from the state because of the hold-harmless designation. This amount is less than many other districts receive.

Tallent said state aid to the school district has remained relatively constant since 1993. "We didn't get any new dollars," he said of state funding over the past five years.

Tallent said the formula change in this session is good news for the district. But he said the increased state aid won't eliminate the need for the school board to cut about $500,000 from next year's budget.

Tallent said the district should use the money to increase its fund balances.20He said that is important to prevent the district's having to cut its budget in future years.