SEMO'S RIVER CAMPUS TO BENEFIT FROM $5 MILLION IN STATE TAX CREDITS

The Missouri Development Finance Board will issue $5 million in state tax credits to corporations and individuals making major donations to Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus project.

University and finance board officials said the 50 percent tax credits could generate $10 million in private money for the project.

Bob Miserez, executive director of the finance board, said it is tough to raise millions of dollars in private money for projects, particularly in outstate Missouri.

"This will certainly help," he said following a press conference Tuesday at the Grotto at old St. Vincent's Seminary overlooking the Mississippi River in Cape Girardeau.

Southeast wants to develop the former Catholic school into a school for the visual and performing arts.

The university's participation in the program will allow major contributors to the project to receive $1.25 million annually in state tax credits beginning in January 2000 and continuing through 2003.

Dr. Ken Dobbins, Southeast's president, said the move is an important step in raising the private and corporate funds needed to develop the River Campus.

Donors can use the tax credits over a five-year period or sell them on the secondary market.

Dobbins said the university hopes to raise between $12 million and $15 million in private contributions for the $36 million project. Southeast has secured $4.6 million from the state and hopes to land another $13.2 million in capital improvements money from the state next year. The rest of the funding would come from the city, which could issue bonds that would be retired with motel-restaurant tax money.

Southeast Chancellor Dale Nitzschke is working to establish a giving plan that will allow donors to take advantage of the tax credits. The plan will be part of the university's "125 Years -- Prologue to the 21st Century" capital campaign.

Nitzschke, who spends a lot of time out of the office courting government grants and private dollars, said the tax credits "lighten the load" in his efforts to raise money for the River Campus.

"Each step along the way, the pegs keep falling into place," he said.

The Missouri Development Finance Board was established in 1982. The board helps fund economic development projects.

The 12-member board approved tax credits for the River Campus project at its meeting earlier Tuesday at Lake of the Ozarks. Members include Lt. Gov. Roger Wilson, Missouri Economic Development Director Joe Driskill and Bill Burch of Burch Food Services in Sikeston.

Southeast is the second college in the state to participate in the tax-credit program. The first was Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, which used the financing mechanism a few years ago for a job-training facility.

A number of cities have benefited from the program, including Charleston, which secured tax credits a year ago for a downtown revitalization project. Springfield used tax credits for construction of a fish-and-wildlife museum.

"We don't use this program to fund the normal mission of a university such as classroom activities," Miserez said.

The River Campus fit the guidelines.

"We thought this was well beyond the normal course of business for a university," he said.

The board is authorized to issue up to $10 million annually in tax credits. Since it began authorizing tax credits in 1988, the board has helped fund 42 projects. The list includes renovation of Union Station in Kansas City. To date, it has authorized more than $117 million in tax credits. So far, $72.8 million in credits have been issued.

Dobbins said Cape Girardeau could ask the finance board to issue bonds for the city's share of the project, totaling about $9 million.

But Mayor Al Spradling III said the city has made no decision about whether it would issue the bonds directly or go through a separate bonding authority like the finance board.

The city can't proceed until a lawsuit that challenges the legality of using city tax money for the project is resolved, Spradling said. Even then, the city's motel-and-restaurant-tax money is largely committed to other projects until after 2004, Spradling said.

Miserez said the finance board's principal business is the issuance of revenue bonds.

Since 1982, the board has issued over $500 million in public infrastructure bonds and over $300 million in industrial bonds. In all, the board has provided over $1 billion in financing for projects since 1982, Miserez said.