Democratic filibuster blocks Blunt's MOHELA plan Compromise evades senators spending sleepless night in the Capitol
BYLINE: By Matthew Franck POST-DISPATCH JEFFERSON CITY BUREAU Joe Mahr of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
DATELINE: JEFFERSON CITY
A day of negotiations and an evening of debate failed Tuesday to clear the way for Senate approval of Gov. Matt Blunt's $350 million college spending plan.
Even a tentative compromise to dramatically overhaul the plan failed to win over Democrats, who vowed Tuesday evening to continue stalling a vote on the issue for days if necessary.
That stance led angry Republican leaders to abruptly suspend debate on the plan late Tuesday.
For over a year, Blunt has favored taking $350 million from the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, called MOHELA, to spend on college construction projects. Many Democrats have objected, saying they fear for the future of the loan authority, which secures access to low-cost student loans.
Senate Minority Leader Maida Coleman, D-St. Louis, said late Tuesday that negotiations on the spending plan were dead. She predicted Democrats would now unite against the entire plan.
"All compromise is not bad. However, making sure we can have an educated work force in Missouri is my priority," she said.
Coleman said Democrats rejected an alternative plan that would have allowed the authority to keep the $350 million needed for Blunt's construction projects. Instead, the authority would take out bonds to raise the money, which would be repaid over 10 to 20 years. Republican leaders had hoped a deal on the proposal would clear the way for a vote on Blunt's plan.
After it was rejected, Senate President Pro Tem Mike Gibbons, R-Kirkwood, blasted Democrats for stalling a plan that he said would benefit all college students.
"The losers in this are simply the students in this state and their families," he said.
Democrats brought the Senate to a halt Monday night with a 15-hour filibuster. Democrats put on a united front to block a vote on the bill, working in shifts to speak continuously. Doing so kept all of the senators in the building throughout the sleepless night.
By late Tuesday morning, glassy-eyed Republican leaders relented, suspending debate to negotiate with Democrats. But those negotiations broke down by late evening.
Blunt's plan to sell MOHELA assets has been politically tenuous since it was introduced 14 months ago. Since then, his proposal has undergone numerous overhauls.
Most recently, Blunt sought to appease anti-abortion lawmakers by removing projects that some feared could be tied to embryonic stem cell research.
That decision enraged research supporters, led by Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia. Graham's district includes the University of Missouri-Columbia, which lost an $85 million life sciences research center.
Blunt, who was in St. Louis Tuesday, said he was not overly concerned by the impasse. Long debates in the Senate are typical, he said.
The plan actually is only one part of the higher education bill before the Senate. The same bill would also set caps on tuition increases at state-funded colleges and universities.
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STLtoday.com/links Read the MOHELA bill.