RIVER CAMPUS FUNDS IN SPENDING MEASURE

The Missouri Senate Wednesday passed a spending bill that includes $4.6 million for Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus project.

The measure also includes $615,000 toward construction of a new vocational-technical school in Cape Girardeau and $50,000 for expansion of the Cape Girardeau Veterans Home parking lot.

The capital improvements bill doesn't tie up spending for the River Campus project as the House measure would have done. Under the House measure, the money would not have been allotted while a lawsuit protesting the project was pending.

Cape Girardeau businessman Jim Drury filed a lawsuit against the city over plans to use motel and restaurant tax money to pay off bonds that would be issued to help fund the local share of the project. A Senate committee on Tuesday deleted that contingency and sent the measure to the full Senate.

Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, said a House-Senate conference committee will meet to iron out the differences in the two spending bills. Final action is expected this week, he said.

Southeast wants to spend $35.6 million to turn a former Catholic seminary into a school for the visual and performing arts.