By Joe Hadsall
jhadsall@joplinglobe.com
A founding member of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority said he doesn’t have enough time or money to continue a petition drive against a recently enacted law.
Allan Purdy filed a referendum last month with the secretary of state’s office, days after Gov. Matt Blunt signed a higher-education bill that authorized the sale of MOHELA’s assets in order to pay for construction projects at Missouri colleges and universities.
Purdy said he could not cover the cost of getting enough signatures to put the sale on the November 2008 ballot.
“It was going to cost more than anyone was willing to pay,” Purdy said. “And if this had ever gone to the people for a vote, then we’re talking about big money.”
Purdy estimated he needed about $100,000 for the initial petition drive.
Missouri Southern State University in Joplin and Crowder College in Neosho are both beneficiaries of the sale.
MSSU is slated to receive almost $19 million for a new health-sciences building. Crowder will get $2.2 million, which will be used to complete the Missouri Alternative and Renewable Energy Training Center.
Neither school slowed efforts toward construction in response to the referendum proposal.
“We never heard anything from anybody with regards to being concerned about it,” MSSU President Julio Leon said. “But, I’m relieved to hear it has been withdrawn. It eliminates another element of uncertainty.”
Blunt had a ceremonial bill signing May 25 at MSSU. Since then, Leon said, the university has been updating its plans for a building that has been in the works for more than 10 years.
“We asked our architect to speed up the development of plans,” he said. “It has been so long, we need to get moving with this.”
Cindy Brown, public information director for Crowder, said the school has not made any plans for its appropriation yet, so construction progress was not affected.
“There shouldn’t be any changes right now,” Brown said. “We should be getting started on construction by the end of this year.”
A referendum is similar to an initiative petition, said Carrie Bebermeyer, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Robin Carnahan. She said Purdy would have needed to collect signatures, in six of the state’s nine congressional districts, from 5 percent of registered voters by Aug. 28.
Purdy said he filed the referendum to “alert the public” about the sale, with which he disagreed.
“The governor wants to grab all the money he can from MOHELA and spend it,” Purdy said. “He is not making money with this sale. He is simply withholding money from poorer students who need it.”
MOHELA sale
The sale of MOHELA’s assets will raise about $350 million for construction at Missouri universities and colleges. The authority would pay the money over six years to the state. In exchange, the loan agency would get a 15-year pledge of tax-exempt bonding power, which it could use to finance more student loans.
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