PANEL LIFTS RESTRICTIONS ON PROPOSED RIVER CAMPUS

A Senate committee Tuesday moved a step closer to approving funding for the River Campus at Southeast Missouri State University.

The Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously deleted an amendment to the capital improvements bill that would have placed the River Campus funding under a contingency. Under the House amendment, the $4.6 million allotted for the River Campus would not have been available while a lawsuit protesting the project was pending. That amendment was approved last week.

The new Senate version of the bill goes for a full vote later in the week before heading to conference committee.

"What we did was pass the same bill with those words deleted," said Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, a member of the appropriations committee. Kinder spoke during a break from the Senate floor in the midst of committee meetings and a filibuster on an abortion bill.

Kinder was hopeful that any differences among the bill's versions would be resolved quickly.

"We have a deadline of Friday to pass the budget," he said. Filibusters on abortion legislation are holding up the votes, he said.

All appropriations legislation must reach the governor's desk by Friday evening.

If it wasn't for the work of area legislators and university officials working to explain the River Campus project, it might not have gotten as far as it has, university officials say.

"This is a major accomplishment," said Ken Dobbins, executive vice president at Southeast.

Mayor Al Spradling III agreed, "It's a step in the right direction."

But even if the university does get its portion of the funding, "it doesn't change things in terms of our approach to the lawsuit," Spradling said.

In question is a lawsuit filed by Jim Drury against the city protesting the project and the city's use of motel and restaurant tax money to pay off the bonds needed.

By getting funding from the state the project can move a little closer to completion, Spradling said. "It triggers certain aspects of the agreement."

The River Campus is a joint project of the university and city. It was not in the original budget, but Gov. Mel Carnahan worked to find money for the project, Dobbins said.

"It really is a process of explaining the project and its positives and the economic growth," he said.

Don Dickerson, president of the university's Board of Regents, has been working with legislators this week to make sure that the contingency funding amendment was lifted.

Southeast wants to spend $35.6 million to develop a visual and performing arts school on the grounds of the former St. Vincent's Seminary. Funding for the project would come from state appropriations, donations and tax-financed bonds issued by the city council. The state would pay about $17 million of the costs while the other would come through donations and bonds.