Conservation campus seeks private funding

As efforts continue in Cape Girardeau County to find ways to attract new industries, businesses, residents and visitors, plans for a conservation campus at County Park North appear to be a major step in enhancing the many amenities the area has to offer.

But plans to seek private funding for the project, which could cost as much as $7.3 million when it's finished, may come as a surprise to Missourians who continue to pay a one-eighth cent state sales tax that can only be spent on the Missouri Department of Conservation. This huge funding source has given the department the resources to purchase hundreds of thousands of acres of land across Missouri. At a time when runaway state spending outpaces state revenue, the conservation department's pot of gold is a source of considerable budget envy.

So far, corporate and conservation groups have donated $200,000 toward the conservation campus here, whose centerpiece will be a $4.7 million nature center funded by county bonds that will be repaid by the state over 10 years. In addition, the conservation department hopes to get an $800,000 federal grant for two mobile nature centers that would take nature education throughout Southeast Missouri. That leaves about $1.6 million to be raised for landscaping, marsh development, an amphitheater, a trapper's cabin replica, a fishing pier and nature trails.

Private donors are to be commended for their support of this project. And there are certain advantages of public-private partnerships for projects like this, including a sense of pride and ownership that goes beyond that of projects funded entirely by tax dollars. For example, the conservation department budgeted $3.6 million for its Discovery Center in downtown Kansas City, but donations added another $3.4 million to the project, in effect doubling the scope of the center.

But the one-eighth cent sales tax for conservation programs in Missouri still bears a close look.

Since it was adopted a quarter of a century ago, the conservation department has spent $2 billion on land purchases, new programs and new buildings. It has acquired approximately 450,000 acres of land (for a total of nearly 800,000 acres now owned by the department), and has in recent years shifted its emphasis from land acquisition to development -- including the conservation campus in Cape Girardeau County.

The conservation department's budget is about $125 million. About $80 million comes from the sales tax. The rest comes from fees and permits. Thanks to the sales tax, Missouri's per-capita spending for conservation programs is higher than any of its eight neighboring states and is the third highest in the nation. And Missouri's conservation department is nationally regarded as a model for delivery of conservation programs.

With the department's record of spending and its sales-tax funding, it will be interesting to see how the conservation department makes its case for private donations to the planned conservation campus here.