EFFORT BEGINS TO GET SEMO WORK ON TRACT

JEFFERSON CITY -- An effort is being made to get funding for the renovation of Parker Hall at Southeast Missouri State University back into the state's supplemental appropriations budget.

Sen. Jerry Howard, D-Dexter, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he plans to do what he can to have it included in the Senate bill. "There is no certainty at this point and we are doing what we can," said Howard.

Gov. Mel Carnahan had recommended that $663,000 be put into the supplemental bill for Parker. The university needs work done immediately to build two more classrooms and offices to make up space lost when the Social Sciences Building was closed.

The supplemental bill is usually approved early in the session and is available much sooner than normal appropriations bills for the fiscal 1995 budget, which will not be available until after July 1.

When the House Budget Committee was considering the supplemental bill, Chairman Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, removed the Southeast project from the bill. Kelly contended that the Southeast project and several others he pulled out were actually capital projects and should instead be in the state's capital improvements budget.

Kelly has maintained that the projects do not belong in the supplemental bill.

There was speculation that Kelly removed the projects in retaliation for ads run earlier this year by the State Republican Committee criticizing several Democratic legislators for their votes last year in favor of Senate Bill 380 and the tax increases that were part of the plan.

If that was the budget chairman's motivation, he has not said so. Instead he has argued that the projects belong in the capital budget, not the supplemental bill, which deals with emergencies and unforeseen needs.

"This item in the budget is in a very precarious position to say the least," said Howard. "I am doing all I can do to get it in the budget and provide assistance to the university in their efforts to replace those classrooms. But right now those capital improvement items are still flapping in the breeze; we are continuing to work on it and trying to make it happen."

Howard said the appropriations committee will vote on the bill next week.

Once the full Senate approves the supplemental bill, it will go to a House-Senate conference committee, of which Kelly will be a member.

"Even if we do get it included in the Senate bill, there will have to be a major effort to keep it in during the conference," said Howard.

Ken Dobbins, executive vice president at Southeast, said the university is proceeding with planning of the project. Dobbins said the university anticipates the money will be appropriated at some point, if not in the supplemental bill then later in the capital improvements bill.

Last week the university board of regents toured the Parker building as part of a tour of renovation projects on campus.

The Social Sciences Building had been scheduled for renovation, but after investigation it was discovered that more extensive renovations than planned would be necessary, leaving the project in limbo.

The building housed three academic departments, 28 faculty members, the dean's office, the College Advising Center, and 10 heavily used classrooms. Those were moved to Kent Libarary and elsewhere. Space in Parker is being converted to ease the space crunch.