VO-TECH FUNDING PASSES SENATE

The Missouri Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday approved a capital improvements spending package that includes $1 million for construction of the Cape Girardeau vocational-technical school.

That amount falls short of the $1.65 million the House approved last month. Still, state Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, said he was pleased with the funding arrangement.

The Senate passed the package late Thursday and the House is expected to review the proposal today.

The total spending bill for capital improvements also includes $5.6 million for construction of a polytechnic building at Southeast Missouri State University and $100,000 toward relocation of the regional crime laboratory in Cape Girardeau.

"Overall, Cape is making out like a bandit," said Kinder, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

He said the committee reduced the proposed funding for the vo-tech project as part of an effort to trim the capital improvements spending bill. "The House was asking for $750,000 in savings from various points in our bill," said Kinder.

The committee earlier had looked at reducing funding for the vo-tech project to $950,000, Kinder said. Later, funding increased to $1.1 million.

On Thursday, Kinder agreed in a meeting with the committee chairman to cut funding another $100,000.

Kinder said funding was reduced for the project as part of a budget move to provide an additional $350,000 for Missouri's ports. In all, the state's ports would receive nearly $1 million in state funding. Only $350,000 of that is included in the capital bill, Kinder said.

In addition, about $150,000 of the money that had been slated for the Cape Girardeau vo-tech project was switched to a vo-tech project in Brook field in northern Missouri, Kinder said.

The Legislature appropriated $1.5 million last year for the Cape Girardeau vo-tech project with a view toward providing the other $1.65 million this year.

The Senate committee's action is $650,000 less than project supporters had hoped for.

Kinder said he and other Cape Girardeau area lawmakers would seek to obtain the final $650,000 for the vo-tech project next year.

If that happens, the state would end up paying $3.15 million or 50 percent of the $6.3 million project. The other half would come from a bond issue approved last year by Cape Girardeau School District voters.

Construction is expected to start this summer, and the school is expected to open by fall 2000.

State Rep. Joe Heckemeyer, D-Sikeston, said he had hoped the Senate would appropriate the entire $1.65 million that was included in the House bill.

"I am a bit disappointed, but it is a lot better than the $150,000 that came out of the House Budget Committee," he said.

It took action on the House floor late last month to get full funding restored for the project.

The vo-tech school will serve students in Cape Girardeau and surrounding school districts.