RIVER CAMPUS ADVANCES; HOUSE PANEL APPROVES $4.6 MILLION FOR PROJECT

Gov. Mel Carnahan wants the Legislature to appropriate $4.6 million for development of Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus.

Carnahan's action Wednesday prompted the House Budget Committee to include the project in its capital improvements funding bill.

University and Cape Girardeau city officials cheered the developments as positive signs that the project will proceed.

"It is very good news," said Mayor Al Spradling III. "It will be better news when it is formally adopted by the Legislature and the governor puts his pen to this thing and approves it"

State funding is vital to the project, they said. The $4.6 million would just be the first installment of state funding. Additional funding would be needed in coming years.

Southeast wants to develop a former Catholic seminary near the Mississippi River in Cape Girardeau into a school for the visual and performing arts. The estimated price tag is $35.6 million, with half of that projected to come from the state. The other $17.8 million would come from city-tax-financed bonds and private donations.

State Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, said Wednesday's actions make it likely that the full House and Senate will fund the project.

The actions by Carnahan and the House Budget Committee came a day after city and university officials voiced dismay over Cape Girardeau motel owner Jim Drury's efforts to scuttle the project. Drury filed a lawsuit this week to block the city from using any tax money to help fund the project. Drury also urged members of the House Budget Committee to vote against any state funding for the project.

University President Dr. Dale Nitzschke said Carnahan's message sent a clear message that Drury's lawsuit was "nonsense."

In January, Carnahan left the project out of his budget recommendations. The project didn't rank high enough with the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education, and the state didn't have sufficient revenue to fund the project this year, Carnahan said at the time.

But Wednesday Carnahan recommended $11.8 million in added funding for capital improvements across the state, including funding for the River Campus project.

The money would fund building projects at six state colleges and universities, including Southeast, as well as a state mental health facility at Marshall.

Among the added projects, Carnahan recommended the most funding for the River Campus.

Carnahan spokesman Chris Sifford said the governor found some money in the budget to fund the added projects.

Most of the money -- $11.1 million -- would come from general revenue. The remaining $752,902 would come from lottery revenue.

Sifford said Carnahan was aware of the lawsuit prior to recommending state funding for the River Campus project. "He just feels like it is a good project," Sifford said.

Sifford said Carnahan believes the River Campus is important for higher education as well as for historic preservation and economic development in Cape Girardeau.

Nitzschke said state funding for the project still has to make it through the full House and Senate. But if it gets through, Carnahan is expected to approve the spending, Nitzschke said.

Southeast officials lobbied the governor and his staff almost daily for weeks, Nitzschke said. Board of Regents President Don Dickerson, a close friend of the governor, was among those who lobbied for state funding for the River Campus.

Nitzschke said the project involves more than a new home for fine and performing arts; it also would help revitalize Cape Girardeau's downtown.

In addition, the River Campus would benefit minorities, he said. The university wants to establish an arts program for minority youths and set up a job training program for minority adults.

Nitzschke said Southeast is asking the state to fund only 50 percent of the River Campus project. He said that sets it apart from projects proposed by other public universities in Missouri.

State Rep. David Schwab, R-Jackson, voted Wednesday with the majority of House Budget Committee members to approve funding for the River Campus. Southeast Missouri Reps. Jim Graham and Bill Foster also voted to include the $4.6 million recommended by Carnahan.

Rep. Marilyn Williams, D-Dudley, voted against funding the project this year. "I just had too many unanswered questions," she said after the vote. "I want to be very cautious of spending taxpayers' money."

Williams said she was trying to be fiscally responsible. She said it wasn't unusual for the governor to recommend added spending. "They always come up with extra money."

But Williams said state government has other needs to meet. "We are short on the budget for mental health. Our social service budget is short."

She also voiced concern about Drury's lawsuit and the fact that Cape Girardeau voters failed to pass a bond issue last year to help fund the project.

Revised plans call for the university to issue bonds through a state bonding authority. The bonds would be retired with city tax money.