VOTE `YES' ON BUSINESS BUILDING

Few people can pay for a house or car with cash. Most people buy these items when the need is great and make payments as they use them.

Missouri wants to do just that to finance critical capital improvements for university campuses and prisons. The state needs to take out a loan, and it needs our permission.

That permission comes in the form of Constitutional Amendment 4, which will be on the ballot Tuesday. We urge voters to vote yes.

The $250 million raised by these general obligation bonds would fund a long list of projects across the state, including Southeast Missouri State University's long-awaited business building. About $116 million is earmarked for prisons and correctional facilities, and $134 million would be used for colleges, universities and community colleges statewide.

Going into debt for these improvements isn't be our first choice. But among the options available, it is the best choice we have to secure these construction projects.

These general obligation bonds, if approved, wouldn't require a tax increase.

That bears repeating.

No taxes would be raised unless revenue isn't sufficient to cover the bond payments. That has never happened in modern times. Last year, the state's revenues grew by 8 percent. This yearly growth, which is typically around 7 percent, would be used to pay off the bond payments.

Despite the new debt, Missouri would remain in good fiscal shape. State general obligation debt was $155 for each Missourian in 1992, compared to a national average of $380 a person.

Southeast would receive $12.3 million from the project. The proposed business building would be one of the highest funded university projects on the list. Of 19 campus construction projects, only three would receive more money than Southeast.

The university needs this business building to bring more students to campus and keep its business graduates competitive. About one-fourth of all Southeast graduates are business majors.

University patrons have been sold on the concept for a number of years, with private donations surpassing $2.4 million. Until now, no state money could be raise for the construction project.

The state legislature turned to this bond issue as a way to finance priority construction projects across the state.

In addition to campus construction, the bond issue will finance additional prison space that would bring a net gain of 3,248 prison beds.

It is easy to say Missouri needs to get tough on crime, but our prisons are overloaded. There are some 16,500 inmates in a system operating at 150 percent of its intended capacity. For criminals to serve more of their sentences, we need space to keep them.

The bond issue also would provide $19.7 million to strengthen juvenile corrections. The average length of stay for most violent youth offenders is 5.5 months rather than the recommended 12 months, because there isn't enough space to house all the offenders. Missouri needs to correct this.

If approved Tuesday, these construction projects would jump start local economies across the state, including Cape Girardeau.

We need that. We need Amendment 4. Vote yes on Tuesday.