BUSINESS BUILDING IS SET BACK

JEFFERSON CITY - Hopes of state funding for a proposed College of Business building at Southeast Missouri State University were set back Friday morning when a House-Senate conference committee failed to agree on a method of funding for higher education construction projects.

"It was a crushing disappointment," said Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, of the university's long-time priority capital project.

"We knew we had an uphill battle to do anything on the business building this session, but did everything we could to press our case."

All higher education capital projects were removed from the Fiscal '94 state budget Friday morning, including one at Missouri Southern where construction is under way.

The projects were removed after a disagreement between House Budget Chairman Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, and Senate Appropriations Chairman Norman Merrell, D-Monticello.

Kelly had sponsored a bill, which passed the House (HB-414) to generate revenue by placing a state sales tax on interstate long distance telephone calls. The money was to be used to pay off bonds for various capital projects, including the business building.

But last Thursday, when the bill was on the Senate floor, it became the vehicle for a tax increase to fund the new school foundation formula. Later, an amendment was offered and passed, removing the telephone tax from the bill, an action that angered Kelly.

Rep. David Schwab, R-Jackson, and Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau, both voted for Kelly's bill in the House because of its potential to fund the business building.

At a speech in Cape Girardeau April 24, Kelly made it clear that if his bill won approval in the Senate, funding for the building would be forthcoming. Kelly said he and other legislators were impressed that $2.8 million had been raised locally for the project, which helped make it a priority.

Gov. Mel Carnahan did not include funding for the building in his budget, or many other higher education capital projects.

Kasten, like Kinder, felt they had fought hard for the funding and promised to come back next year to try again.

Said Kasten: "It is disappointing of course not to have gotten it after we all worked so hard to bring it about. But I understand there had to be some funding for the bonds. I agree with that responsible action as far as our budgeting is concerned; I think everyone worked hard, but it just didn't happen.

"Maybe next year there will be more of a climate to do funding of it. It's just a shame because we are really needing it and ready for it. We were not discriminated against in any way, because all higher education projects were taken out."

Kinder said he attended the committee hearing Friday morning to try and continue making the case for Southeast.

"They just could not agree on funding and simply zeroed out everything in conference committee for higher education," said the senator.

"One big thing was a philosophical disagreement in the Senate about not wanting to do revenue bonds," added Kinder. The vote to take the telephone tax out of the bill "represents the philosophical belief that the state should not get that heavy into the borrowing business."

The senior Republican member of the Senate, Emery Melton of Cassville, contended that revenue bonds are not the way for the state to go in funding projects and that the state was already spending around $57 million in interest on bonds issued in the early 1980s.

Southeast Missouri State University officials had developed a "Plan B," however, efforts to get it approved also failed. Under the plan, the University Foundation would issue bonds for the project, with the state making a commitment for 15 years to pay those off.