RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Go Wal-Mart Go

[Jonathan King <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Mon, 5 Apr 2004, Jerry Gamblin wrote:

> Here is the background.
> 
> http://www.kolr10.com/Global/story.asp?S=1749956&nav=0RXJLvNN
> 
> Here is the story as I have heard it:
> 
> The University of Missouri got 50 million dollars in Bonds to
> cover the basketball arena through HCR-25 last year.

Odd.  I thought the deal was cut back in 2001.

> No other colleges or universities got any capital improvement
> money last year and some school had lost money from the year prior
> due to budget cuts. This made quite a few people mad that the
> state was funding a basketball arena but not academic buildings.

I can see that.
 
> This year the University of Missouri had a 190 million dollar life
> science capital bond issue up for consideration. The senators,
> still mad because of the arena, pilled on a new building for every
> other state funded higher education intuition in Missouri raising
> the price to 350 million.
> 
> If the arena wouldn't have been funded by public bonds the life
> science building would have gone through, and no one else would
> have gotten a new building.

OK, so here's the confusion.  The Life Sciences Building on MU
campus has already been built and opens this summer.  It was funded
by "earmarks" (== pork) turned up by Senator Kit Bond and some state
funding.  The current "Life Sciences" bond package was a much wider
assortment of projects for multiple UM campuses.  I'm not completely
up on the politics, but I think a big concern at other UM campuses
wasn't about the basketball arena, but about the Life Sciences 
Building that MU already "got".  UMKC, I know, would have very much 
liked to stand a shot at taking over the med school at Columbia, but 
can "settle" for better facilities.  At MU itself, the obvious huge 
hit that Life Sciences is turning out to be has generated interest 
in both Life Sciences II (whose funding Bond is already working on) 
as well as the Health Sciences building, which aims to provide 
research facilities for the Med School and so give them a shot at 
actually building the non-clinical specialties there up a bit.  But 
then there's the Engineering renovation on our Campus; only life 
sciences by a severe stretch, but a pretty worthy project...
 
> Smaller colleges hope this is a turning a point with state
> lawmakers hoping that if the fund huge projects at the UM Campuses
> they will funnel some money to us as well.

Missouri does have to rationalize its spending on higher education a 
bit better.  I actually think the worst possible move that could be 
made recently was the MU system absorbing NWMSU.  But that's another 
story.

jking

_______________________________________________
discussion mailing list
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/discussion