BOND ISSUE WOULD MAKE BUSINESS BUILDING A REALITY

Southeast Missouri University Foundation has launched its campaign for the proposed $250 million bond issue. The statewide measure comes before voters Aug. 2, and requires a simple majority for passage.

Missouri and especially Southeast Missouri State University need this bond issue. Let's face it: This bond issue is the most feasible way to finance a much-needed College of Business building on Southeast's campus.

Statewide, it would finance long-overdue capital improvement projects without a tax increase. The bonds would be paid by anticipated state revenue growth over the next 25 years.

The bond issue earmarks $12.3 million to Southeast for the $14 million business school. It is among 21 building and renovation projects that Gov. Mel Carnahan has deemed critical for the state.

The university has fought eight years for business building financing, making a credible case both locally and statewide. In response, friends of the university have raised $2.4 million privately over the past three years. That fact has not gone unnoticed by state leaders. Gov. Carnahan has included the project in his budget the past two years. This year, the Missouri General Assembly added its endorsement.

But the bottom line has remained the same. Without some new source of revenue, there is no extra money in state coffers for any new construction. Period.

University officials fear it could be another dozen years before state building dollars become available, unless the bond issue is approved. Southeast has not received any new appropriated dollars for classroom buildings since 1981.

Called Constitutional Amendment No. 4, the bond issue includes $134.2 million for capital projects at Missouri's public colleges and universities, plus $115.8 million for prisons and other correctional institutions.

With 1,200 business majors, the university's College of Business is one of the premier programs on campus. The college is spread out among several buildings.

The new building would also strengthen Southeast's pursuit of accreditation by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business. A key component for national accreditation is instructional resources and facilities. The accreditation would place Southeast among the top 10 percent of the business schools in the country, and it would be a plum for Cape Girardeau and Missouri. The new building and accreditation would also make Southeast graduates more competitive in the marketplace. And it could assist in student recruitment, a key consideration in the face of declining enrollments.

The Aug. 2 election is just around the corner. Absentee balloting begins today. The last day to register to vote for the election is July 6.

We realize a state bond issue isn't an easy sell. A $600 million bond issue in 1982 passed by only 10,000 votes statewide.

While this new bond issue carries no tax increase, it will add to the state's debt. And that concerns conservative Missourians, as it should. But even with the bond issue, the annual debt service payments will amount to less than 3 percent of the total general revenue collections, according to state officials.

Few of us could purchase our homes with cash. The state is in a similar position. It can afford the payments but not the lump sum.

The longer we wait, the more expensive these projects will become. It is time for Missourians to act.