$372 million university bond plan appears to run out of time

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Struggling under its own inflated size and opposed by pro-life activists, a plan to issue $372 million in bonds for university construction projects appears to have run out of time in the legislature.

The bill received initial Senate approval in late April, but senators have yet to vote on sending it to the House. The legislative session ends in one week, May 14.

Senate Appropriations chairman John Russell, R-Lebanon, said Thursday that opposition to the bill had become too substantial to try to pass it.

Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, a sponsor of the measure, also said time had run out on the legislation.

As originally proposed, the plan would have issued $190 million in bonds for "life sciences" construction projects at the four campuses of the University of Missouri system.

But it was expanded in the Senate Appropriations Committee, and again on the Senate floor, to fund construction projects at all of the state's colleges and universities.

Earlier this week, Rep. Jim Guest, R-King City, said the bond measure had become too costly for his liking -- a sentiment shared by other House members.

Meanwhile, Missouri Right to Life president Pam Fichter asked senators to vote against the bond package, because it contained no restriction against using the buildings for research on cloning or human embryonic stem cells.

The term "life sciences" generally has been used by politicians to refer to everything from health and medicine to environmental and agricultural issues. But some of the building projects had little-to-no connection to the life sciences.