COURTS: HANCOCK SUIT HOLDS UP FUNDING FOR AREA PORTS

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Four port authorities in Southeast Missouri are among the area agencies feeling the effects of a delay in state funding for capital improvement projects.

Last spring the Missouri General Assembly appropriated $6.1 million for port authority improvements. Of that amount, more than two-thirds -- about $4.4 million -- is earmarked for ports in Scott City, New Bourbon, and New Madrid and Pemiscot counties.

However, the state has withheld most of the spending called for in this year's $161.8 million capital improvement budget until litigation involving the state's Hancock Amendment, which limits the growth rate of state revenue, has been resolved. That process could take months.

The Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority at Scott City was to receive $1.5 million for landfill for a 25-acre industrial site at the harbor.

Mel Sundermeyer, Missouri Department of Transportation director of multimodal operations, said it is unlikely the project will proceed until the funding is released.

"That is a pretty good chunk of change for the port to come up with on their own," Sundermeyer said. "They were hoping for the quick release of that money."

Harbor excavation for the new port at New Bourbon, a cooperative effort involving Perry and Ste. Genevieve counties, is also stalled. The Legislature has allocated $1.48 million for the first phase of harbor construction.

"This would really be the beginning of a functioning port there," Sundermeyer said.

"We've had a port authority there quite a few years but had no money in our capital program until we were able to convince the Legislature this was a good use of public funds. We finally convinced them, and something falls out of the sky" to delay the project.

Chauncy Buchheit, deputy director of the Perryville-based Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission, is one of the men spearheading the New Bourbon project.

"Until this money is released, we can't do anything," Buchheit said. "We've got everything else ready to go. We're just waiting on the money."

Once the revenue is made available, engineering work will begin. Buchheit said if the funding becomes available by the end of the year, work can get under way during next year's construction season.

Had the money been released in July as expected, construction could have started, Buchheit said. Cost of the New Bourbon port is expected to be between $6.5 million and $7 million over five to six years.

The delay will be a "significant economic impact" for potential users of the port, Buchheit said.

"Barge is by far the cheapest way to transport," Buchheit said. "It would be a big savings for potential users of the port if it was there."

Also on hold is $975,000 for the final phase of a three-phase installation of a new Burlington Northern railroad spur at the Pemiscot County Port and $400,000 for harbor widening at the New Madrid County Port.

Ports aren't the only ones affected by the delay: Virtually all of the spending called for in the $161.8 million capital improvements bill signed into law this summer by Gov. Mel Carnahan is being withheld.

The dozens of projects listed in the measure include $1 million for the Cape Girardeau School District's new vocational school, $11.95 million for Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus, $150,000 for the university's Kennett Learning Center and $750,00 for a vocational facility in Poplar Bluff.

The state will keep the money until the courts decide if more than $520 million in state revenue will be refunded to taxpayers.

Lawsuits brought by Missouri business groups and two Republican state lawmakers claim the Carnahan administration incorrectly calculated how much the state had to return to taxpayers after the revenue caps established in the Hancock Amendment were exceeded in fiscal year 1995.