New Jersey’s public colleges and universities hope to place a referendum before voters at the 2012 general election for a bond issue to finance new facilities and renovations — the first higher education bond issue since 1988.
A draft proposal from the New Jersey Presidents Council outlines several alternative financing approaches, including a $2.5 billion “catch up” bond issue to be repaid over 30 years; an incremental approach with an initial capital appropriation of $150 million; and a revolving fund where new debt is issued as old debt is repaid, similar to how community college construction is funded.
“We have great colleges and universities, and they are starting to look a little shabby,” former Gov. Tom Kean told the Senate Budget Committee, in Trenton, on April 21. “My experience with bond issues in this state is that everybody has to be on board — labor, business, the governor and the Legislature — everyone has to be on board, and if not, don’t do it or it won’t pass. You have to get people to understand why it is necessary.”
Susan A. Cole, president of Montclair State University, told the committee, “We have built enormous support in business and labor, and what we would truly like to do now is work with the Legislature and the governor’s office to put together a plan that everybody agrees is the best approach to how we solve the problem.”
In his committee testimony, Rutgers University President Richard L. McCormick said it “has been a long time since 1988 (when the state last) funded facilities. This is badly needed to accommodate students and support research. Nothing could do as much to get New Jersey out of its current economic doldrums and sustain jobs and economic growth in the future.”
In a statement Monday, Rutgers said the January report of the governor’s task force on higher education, chaired by Kean, “clearly advocates for the issuance of general obligation bonds to address the capital needs of New Jersey’s colleges and universities,” and added: “We are still in the early stages, and no formal proposals have been developed. We have had discussions with legislators and there appears to be genuine, bipartisan interest in developing a referendum to put before the voters of New Jersey in 2012. As the process moves forward, we will seek the input and support of business leaders in the state.”
E-mail Beth Fitzgerald at bfitzgerald@njbiz.com
