Jetton wants 3 regents out

Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton said Wednesday he won't support state funding for the River Campus arts school project unless three Southeast Missouri State University regents resign.

Wednesday, House leaders also decided to cut the university out of any capital improvements funding from the proposed sale of loans made through the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, area lawmakers said. But plans for using the anticipated $450 million in profit were being discussed late Wednesday night in a House Republican caucus.

Jetton is demanding the resignations of all regents -- board president John Tlapek of Cape Girardeau, Brad Bedell of Sikeston, Mo. and Gail Rosmarin of Poplar Bluff, Mo. -- who were on the board in 2003 when the university decided to finance the River Campus through the issuance of millions of dollars in bonds even though all the state funding wasn't in place.

Tlapek said Wednesday he won't resign and doesn't expect the other two board members will step down.

"It was the right thing for the university and the region," Tlapek said of the board's decision to finance the River Campus project with bonds.

The regents, he said, believed the state would come through with its share of the funding. "We made the best decision we could with the information that we had," Tlapek said Wednesday night.

Jetton demanded the board resignations in a meeting Wednesday afternoon at the state Capitol with university president Dr. Ken Dobbins, regent Al Spradling III and Cape Girardeau Mayor Jay Knudtson.

"He said the only way he would approve funding for the River Campus would be for the resignation of all board members who voted for the bond issue," Spradling said.

At the request of the university, the Missouri Development Finance Board authorized the sale of $36.33 million in bonds in June 2003. Both Jetton and state Sen. Jason Crowell of Cape Girardeau have expressed concern about the financing strategy.

The House leadership headed by Jetton also decided to delete any construction project funding for Southeast from the governor's proposed sale of student loans. Those plans would remove the only Southeast project in Gov. Matt Blunt's proposal to spend $300 million on 20 construction projects at 14 college and research campuses, local lawmakers said.

The governor's plan included $5 million for a life-science research facility at the university's proposed research and technology park along Interstate 55.

"The House leadership has zeroed it out," state Rep. Nathan Cooper, R-Cape Girardeau, said prior to attending a late-night GOP caucus where the issue was expected to be discussed.

Without further state funding, Southeast will have to increase student fees by $6 a credit hour to retire debt incurred by the school to build the arts campus overlooking the Mississippi River in Cape Girardeau, school officials said.

Jetton said school officials issued the bonds for the River Campus without getting prior approval of state lawmakers.

"There is going to be a lot of hesitation to support more funding down there for a board that went above and around the legislature on the appropriation process," Jetton said Wednesday.

"If there was a different board, the legislature would probably feel a little different today," the Marble Hill Republican said.

Spradling, a Cape Girardeau lawyer, said he had hoped to secure legislative support for state funding for the River Campus with a proposal to have Southeast's regents adopt a new policy that would bar the school from using bonds to finance building projects without an approved revenue source to retire the bonds.

The policy would have prevented the Cape Girardeau university from implementing any future financing scheme like that used for construction of the River Campus.

Spradling said he circulated the proposed policy statement a week and half ago. "I thought that would satisfy the members of the House," he said.

Tuesday's meeting was a major disappointment for school officials who had hoped to get the speaker's support for including the River Campus in a list of campus construction projects that Gov. Matt Blunt proposed to fund through the sale of MOHELA loans.

Dobbins, Southeast's president, said that without $17.2 million in state funding for the River Campus project already under construction, the university will have to raise student fees to help retire the bonds. Dobbins said the university would have to impose the fee for about 20 years to pay off the bonds.

The legislature previously had appropriated $4.6 million toward the River Campus project.

Dobbins said neither Jetton nor Crowell voiced any objections to the issuance of bonds prior to the regents' action.

Southeast's bonding decision actually saved the state millions of dollars because it allowed construction to get under way last year, Dobbins said. Further delay would have added inflationary cost to the project, he said.

The River Campus on the grounds of a former Catholic seminary is scheduled to open by the start of the 2007 fall semester.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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