When Gov. Jay Nixon announced his support for a bonding plan that could spur development of higher education capital improvement projects, Rep. Chris Kelly saw it as a major opportunity to move forward.

Kelly, D-Columbia, was the lead sponsor this session of a proposal that would have issued bonds paying for capital improvement projects. The University of Missouri-Columbia was one of the possible beneficiaries of the proposal.

Kelly’s ballot item – which must be approved by voters in order to be implemented – didn’t pass. But the idea did receive the support the first-term Democratic governor last month. At the time, Kelly said Nixon could use the “bully pulpit” to get skeptical lawmakers on board.

The bonding idea gained more prominence after Nixon decided to withhold money from a number of projects, including a $31 million appropriation for the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center in Columbia.

“The governor’s got a lot of power and a lot of ability and a lot of influence,” Kelly said in June.

But Nixon’s support seems to have caused blow back from some Republicans.

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder issued a statement this week calling bonding “merely a debt plan that will fail to put any Missourians back to work in the near future.” House Speaker Ron Richard – a Joplin Republican who voted for Kelly’s resolution earlier this year – released a statement calling the initiative “nothing more than a big spending debt plan.” The Missouri Republican Party even released a Web ad criticizing Nixon for his support of bonding.

These events call into question whether the bond resolution will have any traction – especially since it’s raised the ire of the powerful Speaker of the House. It also spurred Kelly to defend the bond plan in an op ed released to a number of news outlets.

In addition to noting that the bonds would be “used to construct important state and higher education buildings” and “put thousands of our fellow citizens to work,” Kelly said it seemed like “my Republican colleagues thought the bonds were a good idea when Jay did not support them.”

“Now that Jay supports the bonds, they are, all of a sudden, a bad idea,” Kelly added.

Click here to read Kelly’s op ed.

Tags: bonding, chris kelly, kurt schaefer, missouri house, peter kinder, ron richard
Categories: Politics, State Politics.

Posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 2:38 pm
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