Released dollars include Northwest ag center funds
Northwest Missouri State University is to receive $250,000 in matching funds earmarked for construction of a planned Agricultural Learning Center.
The funds were frozen last summer by Gov. Jay Nixon, who feared state revenues were failing to match budget projections.
Altogether, Nixon released $67 million in frozen spending, including $10 million in transportation aid for local school districts, $15 million for college scholarships and millions more in matching funds for building projects at other public universities.
“Northwest thanks Gov. Nixon for his support of the Agricultural Learning Center and certainly higher education and other projects,” Northwest President John Jasinski said Wednesday in a statement released shortly after the governor’s announcement. “Sen. Dan Hegeman and Rep. Allen Andrews have also been instrumental in voicing support for our leadership and continuing growth of agriculture as a signature program at Northwest.”
Nixon said he was releasing the funds during a visit to the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where a similar $10 million matching-funds appropriation will be used to construct a new building for UMSL’s College of Business Administration.
At Northwest, plans for the Agricultural Learning Center, which is being funded largely by donors, call for an $8.5 million facility encompassing 24,000 square feet and housing a lecture hall, exhibition hall, laboratory space and meeting facilities.
The center is to be located north of Maryville on the university’s 448-acre R.T. Wright Farm, which is home to beef, swine, dairy, poultry and sheep herds as well as row, silage and hay crops.
In addition to supporting the university’s agriculture program, the center is also to provide a venue for FFA and 4-H youth gatherings and contests; agriculture industry meetings; workshops; equipment and product demonstrations; livestock shows and sales; and special events.
Jasinski praised lawmakers for setting aside the matching dollars, calling the appropriations strategy “an outstanding vehicle to help fund academic investment.”
“The Agricultural Learning Center and our agricultural sciences program are strategic priorities,” Jasinski said. “This matching gift helps us leverage other gifts from donors and illustrates the state’s commitment to agricultural sciences, Northwest, our students and ag-related partners.”
Northwest’s School of Agricultural Sciences is one of the university’s fastest-growing academic programs and serves more than nine percent of the campus’ total undergraduate population, more than 500 students.
The school offers seven agriculture-based majors in business, education, science, agronomy, animal science, animal science-pre vet and horticulture, in addition to seven minors, a two-year farm operations certificate and three master’s degrees.
University officials have stated that the proposed ag center is one of the signature components of Northwest’s “Forever Green” capital campaign, which aims to bring in $45 million for both new facilities and program improvements.
Still in the “silent” — that is officially unannounced — phase, the campaign seeks to raise $30 million in cash donations and $15 million in deferred gifts over the next several years.
Nixon restricted the $67 million in appropriated funding last summer in the name of budget balancing, but said Wednesday state revenues are now sufficient to spend it.
Revenues have grown 7.7 percent so far this fiscal year, which runs through June 30, state budget director Linda Luebbering said earlier this week. That’s above the Nixon administration’s estimate of 4.6 percent but still short of the roughly 10 percent that would be needed to fully fund the budget.
About $269 million in the budget remains blocked, including more money for K-12 transportation aid, a building project at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, dental coverage for adults on Medicaid and child care subsidies for low-income working parents.
In other higher education funding news from Jefferson City, the state Senate has passed a roughly $300 million bonding plan to repair the Capitol and other state-owned buildings.
The bill also contains $160 million for repairs and renovations at public colleges and universities, including Northwest.
The House, which earlier passed a similar bill, can either adopt the Senate changes or opt to hash out the differences. The deadline for passing spending bills is Friday.
