MACC money for Hannibal trimmed from state budget

In the final hours of the budget process Thursday in the Missouri Capitol, $1.6 million was trimmed that had been designated to help Moberly Area Community College construct its new Hannibal campus.
“I thought we had it. I don’t get fooled very often,” said State Sen. Wes Shoemyer, D-Clarence.
“We’re disappointed in the action of the Legislature, but we’ll continue to look at options to serve the Hannibal community,” said Gary Steffes, vice president for finance at MACC. “We appreciate all the support the Hannibal community has shown toward the fund-raising efforts.”
According to Shoemyer, Sens. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, and Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph, were behind the MACC funding cut.
“Sen. Nodler and Sen. Shields were concerned about projects being put in the bill in a fashion that resembled the federal earmark process. All community college building projects were taken out of the floor sub (substitution bill),” said Shoemyer. “I had talked with Sen. Nodler earlier in the day. I told him I believe this was one issue that was an emergency situation and should be considered.”
An interested spectator as the Senate churned out its version of the budget was State Rep. Rachel Bringer, D-Palmyra, who last month got a $1.6 million appropriation added to the House budget at the committee level.
“Sen. Nodler indicated he felt that (all community college appropriations) should go through the committee and be prioritized in terms of rank of importance, which is typically what the Coordinating Board for Higher Education would do each fall,” she said. “Last fall nobody knew that the lease was terminating for the Hannibal site so it was not seen as an emergency. It’s disappointing that there’s no interim process between the fall priority meetings to move something up in ranking.”
After hearing that the MACC money was coming out of the budget, Bringer contacted Robert Stein, commissioner of the Missouri Department of Higher Education. She asked him to contact Nodler and make him aware of the emergency nature of Hannibal’s situation.
“The commissioner of higher ed was very gracious to do that. I very much appreciate him taking the time to confirm that with Sen. Nodler,” said Bringer. “Sen. Nodler I think had all the information he could have possibly had.”
In a last ditch effort to get the MACC money put back in the budget, Shoemyer offered it as an amendment. It failed.
Plan B, according to Shoemyer, is for MACC’s plight in Hannibal to be brought before the Joint Committee on Capital Improvements and Leasing Oversight, which will be reviewing projects submitted to it in early June.
“If we can get some memorandums of understanding that they are going to be approved, we would ask the governor to call a special session in September in conjunction with the veto session to approve this project,” he said.
Bringer believes money can still be found to fund the MACC appropriation.
“Some questionable projects were included in House Bill 22. I’m certainly hopeful the governor will choose not to make them a priority because these are projects Sen. Nodler chose to include that the House committee and House chamber had never seen. We don’t have any information about why those projects should be such a big priority with these federal funds,” she said.
Despite the loss of the MACC money, Shoemyer voted for the budget bill.
“I voted for it and supported it because I had a lot of other things in that budget bill that were important. I did remarkably well,” he said. “You want to be careful because, if I could not have displayed it as a true emergency need, I may not have offered it (MACC amendment). Then it would appear I was standing up just being greedy and wanting more.”
Both Shoemyer and Bringer are not giving up on securing state money for MACC’s Hannibal campus.
“I’m still optimistic,” said Shoemyer. “I’m happy to help develop a plan on how to inform this committee so that it will look favorably on this project.”
“My plan is to advocate every single moment to keep it on the table. That’s what I’ve done up until now,” said Bringer.
The loss of MACC money was not Bringer’s only budget disappointment. She questioned the decision to remove appropriations to fund health care for working mothers.
“I was surprised that was not a priority. It didn’t even involve any general revenue. The hospitals had offered to fund it to draw down federal dollars,” she said. “That effects about 35,000 moms around the state, including folks in Marion and Ralls counties.”