Romney aide revokes $371m bond package

Trustees seek compromise

By Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

wo days after Eric Kriss, secretary for Administration and Finance, canceled a $371 million bond package proposed by the UMass Building Authority, the Board of Trustees reasserted the need for the funding package.

      After an hour-long deliberation behind closed doors Wednesday at UMass Dartmouth, the trustees reaffirmed President William M. Bulger's authority to prioritize capital projects in negotiating a bond issue with Gov. Mitt Romney's administration. Board chair Grace Fey said Bulger already had such authority but that the trustees wished to clarify and reaffirm his position in light of the need for the University to respond to the governor's "misunderstandings" about financial details of the bond issue.

      "We've been told, ... and we believe that we have, great debt coverage," Fey said. "We would like to float a bond."

      The bond issue would have financed a number of projects, including the integrated science facility on the Amherst campus and controversial new dormitories at UMass Boston. Some of the buildings were scheduled to begin construction in the near future, so the cancellation may force the science center and other projects to stall. State Sen. Stan Rosenberg (D-Amherst) met with state officials after the bond's demise to facilitate moving the noncontroversial projects forward without delay.

      Fey said Bulger will be free to negotiate for the entire package or for parts of it, as he sees fit.

      The University has been issuing bonds through its own authority for several years and has a credit rating separate from the state's. But state law requires approval by the governor's office. Two months ago, Kriss ordered a 30-day review of the proposed bond sale, which had been approved in the final days of the Swift administration. This week, Kriss said the bond offering would trigger a "near meltdown of fiscal affairs" for the entire public higher education system.

      The cancellation may have been another salvo in the ongoing struggle between Bulger and the Romney administration, which has targeted the Presi-dent's Office for months and has engineered a (pending at press time) House vote on whether to retain Bulger's job or eliminate it. That amendment was offered after Romney, in the face of strong legislative opposition, withdrew a state government reorganization plan that required an all-or-nothing vote. Romney said portions of the plan, including an overhaul of higher education, will be put forth one at a time.

     Fey said Tuesday that eliminating Bulger's office would not save the $14 million the Romney administration has claimed and would cripple the entire University system.
In addition to the canceled bond and the attempted ouster of Bulger, the University is dealing with a dismal funding package from the state that in fiscal year '04 would put the system nearly 30 percent behind its state dollars from fiscal '01, according to trustee Edward Dubilo, who chairs the Administration, Finance and Audit committee.

      "Such a cut is not sustainable without a major impact," he said.

      Bulger renewed his call for Romney to consider raising taxes.

      "The Commonwealth of Massachusetts needs more money if it's going to fulfill its obligations [including] investment in public higher education," he said.

      "Cuts in real services are inevitable if the proposed budget reductions go into effect. We don't embrace this budget."

     Dubilo also reported that, although the University is still in relatively good fiscal shape, it is "losing ground to peer institutions."

Action called a 'setback' by Lombardi

By Daniel J. Fitzgibbons, Chronicle staff

his week's cancellation of a $371 million bond issue for the University system, by the Romney administration poses a "setback" for campus efforts to address a serious deferred maintenance problem, according to Chancellor John V. Lombardi.

     Lombardi said a number of projects affected by the cancellation of $82.9 million in funding for the campus are already in progress or scheduled to start by the end of this year or in early 2004.

      The biggest project impacted by state Secretary of Administration and Finance Eric Kriss' revocation of the UMass Building Authority bond sale is the planned integrated science facility, an $80 million building needed to replace deteriorated student laboratories, according to the chancellor. The bond package included $26.28 million for the facility, which had a projected start date of November.

      The bond sale would also have provided $13.8 million for an art building and $10 million to renovate Skinner Hall as the new home of the School of Nursing. The art building is intended to provide needed studio space for students after safety concerns prompted the closure of some areas in Clark Hall and loss of the Foundry to an accidental fire last month. The art building project was also slated for a November start and work in Skinner has already begun, according to Lombardi.

      Other priority projects include renovations of Morrill Science Center ($3.6 million), scheduled to begin in October, replacement of the roof and windows in the Lincoln Campus Center ($8 million), repairs to the facade on Bartlett Hall ($2 million) and the replacement of a defective roof on Goodell ($1 million). Another $500,000 was to be used to repair deteriorated parts of McGuirk Alumni Stadium.

      Other safety related items also were included in the bond package, including campus-wide fire alarm improvements ($2 million) and elevator repairs ($4 million), the replacement of hazardous walkways in the Southwest Residence Area ($4 million) and repairs to University Drive ($3.4 million), one of the main access roads to campus. The elevator repairs were slated for November, with the fire alarm program to start a month later along with $3.8 million in general deferred maintenance projects. Both the Southwest and University Drive pro-jects were slated for January.

      Lombardi also noted that three other projects to be funded through general obligation bonds issued by the state have been postponed by the Romney administration. Those projects include replacement of the leaking Du Bois Library deck ($4.7 million), upgrades of fire alarms in Morrill and Goessmann Laboratory ($2.1 million) and the installation of handicapped accessible elevators in Totman gym and the Student Union ($1.38 million). All three projects were ready to bid this month, according to Lombardi.