01/17/06 Funding plan for WSU`s Life Sciences bldg

Washington Ag January 17, 2006 Lawmakers did not provide any state construction funds in the last session for Washington State University's proposed Life Sciences building at Pullman. That 63-million dollar facility is WSU's top priority in the current legislative session, but it's not asking for any funds out of the state's construction budget to build it. Rather it seeks authorization for the state issuance of revenue bonds and a funding mechanism called Certificates of Participation. Doctor Ralph Cavalieri, a WSU Associate Dean and Director of the Agricultural Research Center explains. Cavalieri: "These bonds will pay for the building and they will be paid back by the proceeds of the public lands that are administered on behalf of the land grant university by the Department of Natural Resources. We have used that procedure in the past and those bonds, several of them, will be retired in the next couple of years. So it provides an opportunity to use the proceeds from these public lands to help on the capital situation." One reason WSU would like to get construction going on the Life Sciences building is that it would reinforce the need for a proposed new facility at the Pullman campus by USDA's Agricultural Research Service. I'm Bob Hoff.