Your Republican legislature at work

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by David Safier

A lawmaker-approved plan to spend $1 billion on building projects at the state's three universities and stimulate the construction industry is likely dead after a legislative committee set to review the package canceled its meeting.

There's not much more to say, is there? (But I'll say it anyway.) Pearce & Co. think it's a bad idea to sell bonds that will put out-of-work builders to work on projects that will enhance our universities.

Projects like:

• $470 million to expand the Phoenix biomedical campus, which would have added classrooms and other facilities.
• $90 million for a 150,000-square-foot Environment and Natural Resources Building, which would have housed the Institute for the Study of the Planet Earth.
• $12 million to renovate Centennial Hall by replacing old seats, upgrading the acoustics and installing extra bathrooms.
• $68 million to repair more than two dozen campus buildings, including McKale Center and the Main Library. The legislative committee approved a portion of those projects.

The Centennial Hall project is an upgrade that could probably be put off with little harm done, but the first two are value-added projects to make the University more academically vibrant, and the last means repairing buildings now instead of spending far more to repair them later.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you your Republican Legislature.

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