Regents who voted for bonds are barrier to state funding ...

During the past week, questions have been raised regarding my position on the funding for Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus project. I would like to take this opportunity to lay out a factual accounting of how we arrived at where we are today.

Over the last several years since this project was first announced, Southeast officials have requested state aid for the project. For fiscal year 2001, I supported and the General Assembly approved $11.95 million, but that amount was immediately withheld by then-governor Bob Holden, and no state money has been expended since then.

Despite that track record of non-funding, in 2003 officials at Southeast attempted to circumvent the legislature's appropriation authority by issuing over $36 million in bonds. Southeast officials bonded this debt with the clear knowledge that they had no guarantee of a revenue stream other than additional tuition and fee increases, which would negatively impact the school's students like my daughter who will be a freshman there next year.

In recent articles in the Southeast Missourian, current and former Southeast officials have stated that no one, including myself, voiced any objections to the bonding plan. These statements are blatantly false and misleading. The reason I personally never voiced any objections to the bonding plan is because Southeast officials never informed me of their plan.

The fact is that only one legislator that I am aware of knew of the plan, speaker pro tem Carl Bearden (who was House Budget Committee chair at the time). In 2003, Bearden had a conversation with university president Ken Dobbins, telling him flat out that the university would be getting no appropriations in the budget then or ever, and that the bonding scheme was not advisable without a guaranteed revenue stream -- which would not be provided by the legislature.

Southeast's bonding scheme sets a terrible precedent. If the legislature were to now fund the $17.2 million that Southeast is requesting, every other university in Missouri would think it had a green light to move forward with projects not approved or appropriated by the legislature with the expectation that eventually we would cave and give them the money. This would be a dangerous road to follow.

In a letter dated Oct. 21, 2005, Dr. Elson Floyd, president of the University of Missouri system stated, "I strongly concur with your concern about revenue bonds being issued without a documented and established funding stream to retire the debt. ... It is frankly irresponsible to issue bonds without a verifiable funding source." But that is exactly what Dobbins and the board of regents did -- putting the future of the River Campus in jeopardy in the process.

Arguments have been made that the bonding was justified because by starting earlier it saved money in construction costs, and I recognize that the River Campus is good for the community. I certainly want to do all I can to help in this process. However, as the leader of the Missouri House of Representatives, I have to be fair and consider the implications for the entire state. Just last year, the Coordinating Board for Higher Education requested $1.4 billion in new construction projects for universities in Missouri. If we as a legislature were to allow all universities to follow the path of the River Campus, we would be broke.

Some are saying that my position to hold the members of the board of regents who voted to allow this irresponsible bonding plan to account for their actions is wrong. But I simply cannot justify moving forward with an appropriation for the River Campus until I, and the rest of the legislature, can be assured that there has been a change of attitude within the board of regents. To this day, the current members of the board who voted for the bonding scheme say they would do it again. That is just not acceptable.

There may need to be a change of leadership with the board of regents in order for the legislature to regain a sense of trust that the university's fiscal management can move forward in a sound manner. Until that day comes, I, as the elected leader of the Missouri House, cannot be supportive of the failed and irresponsible positions and actions of the board of regents as it now stands.

Rod Jetton of Marble Hill, Mo., is the speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives.