One of the surprises of this year’s Mississippi legislative session was that lawmakers did not borrow any money for capital improvement projects around the state.
The state’s eight universities, who benefit greatly from this borrowing, already are marshalling the troops to make sure the Legislature does not do the same thing in 2018.
It will be interesting to see what happens. Almost certainly, the state will borrow some money, and the universities will get a nice portion of it.
It’s also clear that the schools have some pressing needs.
For example, Alcorn State got $3 million in 2016 to renovate its water treatment plant, but it needs another $1.5 million to finish the job. Others have plenty of building improvements on their wish lists, along with construction of some new facilities.
Most of these projects are good investments.
The state’s universities play an important role in producing a smarter and more educated work force, and their efforts deserve the support of taxpayers. The universities also must keep up with competing schools in other states.
There are two factors that may affect how much money the state borrows on behalf of its universities in 2018.
One is Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves. He came to state government from a banking job, where he presumably understood the merits of lending money.
It’s fair to say, though, that in his current job he is far less enamored with borrowing it. He killed the Legislature’s capital improvement plans both this year and in 2012.
But Reeves is almost certain to run for governor in 2019, and that approaching campaign is likely to make him a little more willing to grease the skids with communities around the state through some borrowing. Universities stand to benefit from this.
The other factor, perhaps unspoken, is the amount of money that Ole Miss and Mississippi State have obtained on their own for new or upgraded sports facilities.
The recent trend is astounding. The two schools have raised tens of millions of dollars for expanded football stadiums, renovated baseball fields and many other sports goodies.
At a time when the state is pinched for money and probably borrows a little bit too much based on its population and income, there must be more than a few lawmakers who wonder exactly how much money the state should obtain on behalf of these two schools.
The fundraising prowess for high-profile athletic facilities makes it look like less attention is being paid to academic needs.
This thinking is wrong, of course, but it does put at risk the borrowing for smaller universities, who have no hope of raising as much money as Mississippi’s two Southeastern Conference members.
True enough — Ole Miss, State and to some degree Southern Miss have to keep up with their athletic conference competitors.
But in order to make a stronger case for the state to borrow on their behalf, they need to put the brakes on the sports investments.
Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
