State bond issue for higher education passes

Looks like more money will be on the way to our state universities.


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"Higher ed bond issue passes state Senate


3/30/2005

The state Senate passed a $475 million higher education bond issue Tuesday and ended weeks of political haggling over the plan that will pay for new classrooms, laboratories and research facilities at Oklahoma's 36 colleges and universities.
The Senate voted 43-2 for the compromise measure and sent it to Gov. Brad Henry for his signature. Henry said he will swiftly sign it into law, and supporters said construction on many of the package's 140 projects will begin this summer.

"The bond issue provides a tremendous boost to Oklahoma's economy and will lead to the creation of thousands of jobs," said Henry, who made the college bond package one of his top goals for the Legislature this year.

The bond issue will employ an estimated 4,000 construction workers and generate more than $737 million for the state's economy, officials said.

Henry had proposed a $500 million bond issue. But the Democratic governor and former Senate President Pro Tem Cal Hobson, D-Lexington, agreed to $475 million to accommodate a $25 million bond bank that Republican House Speaker Todd Hiett wanted to fund future capital needs.

The bond bank was part of an alternative proposal House Republicans cobbled together with the help of University of Oklahoma President David Boren.

Negotiations over the bond issue turned tense two weeks ago, when Hiett said negotiations had broken down and blamed Henry for their failure. Henry said Hiett's alternative plan was unconstitutional, and Hobson called Hiett's bond bank plan "a slush fund."

The bond package gives the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University and the state regents authority to issue their own bonds. Lawmakers still will be able to disapprove of bond issues developed by the universities.

The measure includes other provisions pushed by Hiett, including naming the state's gross production tax as a secondary revenue source to pay off the bonds if revenue from higher education's share of a statewide education lottery falls short.

Hiett also pushed for variable bonds terms to match the life of the capital projects. Henry had proposed paying off the bonds, plus more than $400 million in interest, over 30 years with lottery money.

Hobson said passage of the measure was the culmination of months of work by lawmakers and higher education officials. He blamed Hiett for delays in its final passage as House and Senate leaders bickered over details.

"Because of that delay, interest rates have risen and taxpayers will have to absorb those costs," Hobson said. The Senate approved Henry's original $500 million bond package in February.

"The work on this bill is an important part of our continued effort to make tomorrow better for our children and make a brighter future for this state," Hobson said.

Sens. Angela Monson, D-Oklahoma City, and Judy Eason McIntyre, D-Tulsa, voted against the bond package after an amendment by Monson to protect course offerings at the Tulsa campus of Langston University, a historically black college, was defeated.

The bond measure asks state regents to examine expanding course offerings at colleges in the Tulsa area, including branches of OU and OSU. Black state lawmakers have said that could lead to the closure of Langston's Tulsa campus. Both votes against the bill came from members of the Legislature's Black Caucus, Sen. Angela Monson, D-Oklahoma City, and Sen. Judy Eason McIntyre, D-Tulsa."

[Midtowner]

Wow.. this protectionism of Langston's Tulsa campus is amazing.

Great to know that state officials are in favor of people in Tulsa only having access to degrees from a school that has nowhere near the academic reputation as its in-state competition. Langston as kind of become an obsolete instutitution in my opinion. It should have been closed just as many "black" public schools were closed when integration occured.