MOHELA bill cuts medical funding

A hearing will be held today to discuss parts of the initiative.

By Michael Sewall

Published March 14, 2007

MU will lose more than $40 million in the latest development of the proposal to fund campus capital projects through the sale of assets by the state student loan authority.

Cut from the revised version of the Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative is the proposed $85 million Health Sciences Research Center and a $2 million business incubator.

The plan still offers the original $350 million for higher education projects, which would come from the sale of assets of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority.

Funding for a new Ellis Fischel Cancer Hospital worth $31 million replaced the science research building.

About $12 million of funding for agricultural science projects are new to the project and will help focus on the University Extension programs in rural areas of the state. Medical research has been mostly eliminated, especially at MU. Even so, Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, and the Department of Economic Development Director Greg Steinhoff said the new plan could garner enough votes to pass, which was a worry of the original version of the bill.

"We are very excited to announce this list, which includes some of the projects from the original list and additional projects that will benefit Missouri by enhancing educational opportunities for students," Steinhoff stated in a news release.

Of the four UM system campuses, MU is the only university to lose funding proposed in the original plan. UM-Rolla and UM-St. Louis will see increases in funding while UM-Kansas City will have the same net gain.

In a quick move, the Senate brought the umbrella higher education bill to debate Monday night, and the dialogue carried into the early hours of the morning.

Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia, filibustered for more than two hours and debate continued on the Senate floor as legislators discussed different aspects of the bill.

Graham, who had expressed dismay with the proposal in the past because of the decision by the Missouri Development Finance Board to prohibit stem-cell research in buildings funded by the initiative, issued a news release on March 8, calling the new bill a defeat for Columbia.

"It is apparent that Gov. (Matt) Blunt has lost sight of what this plan was supposed to accomplish," Graham stated in the release.

Graham said Blunt was looking to claim a political victory after a series of setbacks.

"What we need to do is restore a complete Health Sciences Research Center and business incubator for the University of Missouri," he stated.

Graham also addressed speculations that Blunt and Nodler are simply trying to pass the bill through the Senate.

Nodler said this was a "one-time investment to help our universities and colleges."

A hearing will be conducted today for a House Appropriations Committee bill that discusses the funding for the particular projects of the initiative.

MU Provost Brian Foster said the new version is still a work-in-progress and didn't want to speculate much about the plan's future. But Foster said the university won't give up on the research building.

"We're disappointed, of course, in not having the research building," Foster said. "We'll just have to look for other ways to fund it."

Foster said the agriculture-related projects are still valuable and essential to the agricultural and extension functions of the university.

"We would certainly rather have had the full funding, but it didn't happen," Foster said. "But agricultural projects are an important part of our mission as a land-grant university and especially serving the people in rural Missouri."

UM system spokesman Scott Charton looked at the new proposal on a system level. Despite the cuts that MU will experience, he said he sees benefits in the new projects.

"Keep in mind, the agricultural projects are the backbone of the university's mission," he said. "It's true there has been a significant cut, but we're still getting lots of important funding."

Despite the sudden switch from medical research to agricultural projects, Charton said MU would still be getting the highest single amount of all the other campuses, and the UM system will not abandon research. He cited alternative funds, such as the For All We Call Mizzou fundraising campaign, as a way to make up for the cuts lost.

"It's always a challenge to find private donations," he said. "But we've had a successful fundraising campaign going on at Mizzou."

House Minority Leader Jeff Harris, D-Columbia, has also expressed concern with the plan and went as far as writing a letter to Blunt withdrawing his support for the governor's idea.

Harris withdrew his support after Liscarnan LLC, the advisory firm to MOHELA, when it advised the loan authority against the plan.

Harris' main concern is the sale of assets, but he is also upset with the new project proposals.

"This list of buildings completely abandons the original proposal," he said.