Bill Seeks Borrowing For State Campuses

The Republican
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
By Holly Angelo

AMHERST - The University of Massachusetts system and state and community colleges could see some relief when it comes to financing capital needs on campus if a bonding bill filed by state Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg, D-Amherst, manages to garner support.

The proposed higher education capital outlay loan act calls for the state to issue bonds to finance the capital plans for the five-campus UMass system, which amounts to $2.14 billion, and state and community colleges, which totals $1.2 billion.

"The real problem is we have $3.5 billion of infrastructure that needs to be done to modernize our campuses, and the commonwealth has provided virtually no support," Rosenberg said yesterday during a telephone interview from his office in Boston. "We're trying to get the state back into the business of funding higher education capital and get it off the backs of the students and their families."
 
Fifteen to 20 years ago, the state used to pay 100 percent for higher education capital costs, Rosenberg said. Now, campuses pay for the bulk of their capital improvements from their operating budgets, which means increased student fees, he said.

The UMass Board of Trustees approved a $2.14 billion capital plan for the five-campus system in August that covers fiscal years 2007-2011. Of that amount, the flagship campus in Amherst has $1.16 billion in prioritized needs.

"Sen. Rosenberg's proposal is surely critical for the success of Massachusetts higher education," UMass-Amherst Chancellor John V. Lombardi said in an e-mail interview. "We are all suffering under a tremendous load of deferred maintenance that threatens the quality of our educational services and the ability of our faculty to perform at their capacity. Because we must spend operating funds on capital renewal, we have less funding for faculty, students, library services, and other essential functions of our teaching and research missions."

The bill still has to be assigned to a committee, either the Long-term Bonding or Higher Education Committee, Rosenberg said. It will then go to public hearing and be sent to the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

"If the Rosenberg bill succeeds, we will be able to relieve our operating budget of much of the responsibility for funding capital and redirect that funding to faculty and staff and other essential services currently significantly underfunded," Lombardi said.

The bill also calls for the state to find a way to reimburse those campuses that already have started capital projects from approved plans within their operating budgets.

A few years ago, the state Board of Higher Education instructed state and community colleges to spend at least 5 percent of their operating budgets on capital renewal and deferred maintenance. At Westfield State College, the administration strives to spend between 7 percent and 9 percent, said Curt D. Robie, assistant vice president of administration, who also oversees facilities and operations.

"This (bill) would be great for us," Robie said. "We need to find a way to catch up. This would probably help us catch up."

Rosenberg said student charges are "out of control" in part because of capital needs eating away at operating budgets. In addition, there are more and more staff and faculty vacancies.

"The money is being diverted from the classroom to bricks and mortar," Rosenberg said.

Robert P. Connolly, spokesman for UMass President Jack M. Wilson's office, said Rosenberg's initiative is welcome.

"Over the past six years we've spent $1 billion systemwide on capital improvements. Of that $1 billion, 78 percent was university financed and 22 percent was picked up by the state," Connolly said. "Every dollar we spend on capital projects is a dollar we could spend somewhere else."

Even if the Legislature adopts the legislation, it would still have to go to the governor for approval, and then capital funds would need to be released. Rosenberg said he's optimistic.

"I think there will be a lot of support for this when the momentum starts to build," Rosenberg said.