Arizona State University President Michael Crow definitely knows how to give a politically correct, if not necessarily accurate, answer.
On April 17, Crow and a couple of allies from the construction industries met with the Tribune Editorial Board to promote a $1.4 billion debt package to add new buildings at the state’s three public universities and to remodel older ones.
I pressed Crow on why the universities are asking for so much when the state faces multi-billion dollar deficits. I also asked why haven’t the universities concentrated on the most pressing needs: building safety and maintenance projects that make up about one-third of the request.
Crow gave several reasons why the state should borrow all of the money now, but he also said he’d be happy to accept any amount of money that lawmakers believe the state could afford to spend at this point. If Crow and his colleagues were sincere about that, they would be lobbying just as hard for other bills in the Legislature this year that are creative ways for the universities to fund additional construction.
House Bill 2264, sponsored by Rep. Warde Nichols, R-Gilbert, would have created a permanent exception to the state sales tax on activities that take place on university campuses including merchandise sales and construction payments. Those tax savings would have to be used for building repairs and upgrades. Staff at the Joint Legislative Budget Committee estimated the universities could raise $22 million a year that way, enough to finance most of the building maintenance projects in the $1.4 billion package without taking another dime from the state.
HB2264 never went anywhere in the House, a clear sign the universities ignored it.
Another measure, House Bill 2459 by Rep. Bob Robson, R-Chandler, would transfer control of state trust lands designated for the university system to the Arizona Board of Regents. Right now, all state trust lands are managed by a single agency on behalf of several different groups include grade school districts, the state veterans home, and the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind.
It’s not clear how much more money the board of regents could wring out of the small portion of state trust lands that belong to the universities. But the regents would have the opportunity to manage the use or sale of those lands for the direct benefit of higher education, instead of relying on an outside agency which has clients with much bigger slices of the pie to worry about.
HB2459 actually has passed the House but has completely stalled in the Senate.
My guess is the universities are so focused on the $1.4 billion package because their most powerful ally, Gov. Janet Napolitano, really wants the most expensive project in the plan – a new campus for the embryonic university medical school in downtown Phoenix with a price tag of $470 million.
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