Dobbins: Bonds had bipartisan support

~ House Speaker Rod Jetton contends few lawmakers knew in advance of the plan to fund Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus.

Southeast Missouri State University had the backing of the Democratic governor and the Republican head of the state senate in its decision four years ago to issue bonds to help finance construction of the River Campus arts school, school officials say.

School officials never misled lawmakers or state officials regarding the finance plan, say university president Dr. Ken Dobbins and the school's former lobbyist, Marvin Proffer.

Then governor Bob Holden and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder of Cape Girardeau, who was then Senate president pro tem, backed the bond plan, school officials said.

Dobbins defended the actions of the board of regents in approving a plan to fund the River Campus through the issuance of bonds in 2002 even though the university didn't have state funding in place to retire the debt.

School officials said they felt the state had committed to the project and would provide the needed state funding in the future.

House Speaker Rod Jetton, R-Marble Hill, told school officials last week that regents John Tlapek of Cape Girardeau, Brad Bedell of Sikeston and Gail Rosmarin of Poplar Bluff must resign before the lawmaker would back state funding for the construction project.

School officials objected to the speaker's demand. Dobbins said the regents won't resign and shouldn't do so.

"We have been very upfront," said Dobbins. "That is why the regents will not resign or say they made an error because they didn't."

Proffer, the former lobbyist, decried Jetton's action. "This is terrible," said Proffer. "He has no right to do that."

Proffer was a state representative from Jackson for 26 years. He served as a lobbyist and fund-raiser for Southeast from 1989 to June 30 of last year.

"I have never heard of anything like that," Proffer said of Jetton's demand for regents to resign.

Jetton contends that few lawmakers knew in advance of Southeast's plan to issue bonds.

Dobbins said Holden and a number of lawmakers were aware of the plan to issue bonds and supported the idea.

Dobbins said the regents outlined the funding plan at a board meeting in October 2002. School officials then contacted both the Missouri Development Finance Board and Holden's budget director to explain the financing plan.

In November, school officials discussed the plan with the Cape Girardeau City Council, which publicly committed city tax money to help fund the River Campus development.

In December 2002, the regents approved the plan to sell bonds through the finance board, Dobbins said.

Dobbins pointed to several news stories on the finance plan the Southeast Missourian published in advance of the university's decision.

"It wasn't like we went in the back room and did this," Dobbins said. "We have been very upfront."

The Missouri Legislature appropriated $4.6 million for the project in 1999. The money wasn't spent. Lawmakers reappropriated the money for the River Campus in 2002, school officials said.

The legislature provided another $1,000 in funding for the project in 2002 to show the state's continued commitment to the project, Dobbins said.

"That was important to our bond counsel," Dobbins said. "They would not have allowed us to sell bonds if that had not been done."

The university issued the bonds through the Missouri Development Finance Board in September 2003. School officials said they would rely on private donations, Cape Girardeau city tax money and anticipated state funding to pay off the bonds.

But without state funding, Southeast would have to increase student fees to pay off the debt, school officials said.

Kinder said Dobbins told him in advance of the appropriation vote that the $1,000 appropriation was needed in order to proceed with the issuance of bonds.

"We had bipartisan support for this project," recalled Kinder. The project had the backing of two governors -- first, then governor Mel Carnahan and later Holden.

Kinder said he strongly backed the project and the funding plan.

Dobbins said the state has provided funding in stages for other projects. The River Campus should be no different, he said.

But Jetton contends that the university acted without legislative approval and circumvented the state funding process by issuing bonds.

Southeast officials approved the issuance of bonds even though they knew they had no guarantee of state funding to help retire the bonds, he wrote in a letter to the Southeast Missourian.

State Rep. Carl Bearden, R-St. Charles, who was House budget chairman, told Dobbins in 2003 that the university shouldn't view the $1,000 appropriation as a promise of further state funding for the River Campus project.

"I told him that there was absolutely no guarantee they would ever receive any funding from the state and to issue bonds based on that would be a mistake," he recalled.

Southeast, he said, went ahead and issued bonds anyway.

Bearden said it was a "backdoor way" of trying to get the state to fund the project. He said the university's message was, "Here, we have done it and now you have to pay for it."

Jetton wrote in a letter to the Southeast Missourian that Bearden told Dobbins that the legislature wouldn't provide more state funding for the River Campus project.

Dobbins doesn't remember such a conversation. He doesn't recall any lawmaker telling him that the university would never receive the state funding.

"If the budget committee chairman had told me that we would never get funding, I would have been very concerned and I would have shared it with the board of regents," Dobbins said.

The university president said he never received any letters from lawmakers objecting to the issuance of bonds.

But Bearden said Jetton is right to take a stand against the university on the funding issue. "We can't afford to do business that way with anybody," said Bearden.

He and Jetton have expressed concern that other schools might try the same approach to funding. "Where does it stop?" asked Bearden.

But Proffer said the state, through the administrations of two governors and several legislative sessions, had committed to the project.

"It is the state's obligation to finish the project," Proffer said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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