DALLAS -- Missouri voters will he asked Aug. 2 to authorize $250 million of general obligation bonds to expand state prisons and to construct and renovate higher education buildings.
If voters approve, Missouri is expected to issue $75 million Of bonds during January or February of next year and to sell the remainder within the next three years, Mark Ward, Missouri's director of budget and planning, said this week.
"That's our best estimate as of today," Ward said. "We will issue them on a cash.needed basis."
Ward said Gov. Mel Carnahan decided to put the bond authorization on the August ballot rather than the November ballot partly because design contracts and other preliminary work can be started this fall if voter approval is given.
Earlier this year, the state legislature overwhelmingly approved the voter referendum on the bonds, which would provide about $134 million for higher education projects and $116 million for prison and youth services facilities expansion.
The corrections projects are needed to replace lockups, alleviate overcrowding at youth services facilities, and expand the state's prison system to keep violent criminals behind bars longer.
The projects comprise:
* $88.8 million for new prisons or additions to existing prisons. That will include replacing and more than doubling the beds at the Renz Correctional Facility for women in Jefferson City. A new, 1,000-bed prison would he built within a 75-mile radius of St. Louis at an estimated cost of $56 million. Prison space would he added throughout Missouri to the 16,200 current beds that have become inadequate as the inmate population grows by an average of 160 inmates a month.
* $7.2 million to replace the Kansas City Honor Center for adult offenders on work release programs. The .center is in a rented space and the money would be used to acquire or construct a better building.
* $19.7 million to provide about 200 more beds for disturbed youth throughout the state, including three facilities in St. Louis, two in the southwestern part of Missouri, one in Kansas City, and one in the central part of the state. The beds would amount to about a 40% increase in capacity.
In Missouri's higher education system, plans call for almost 20 building or renovation projects at universities and colleges. Some projects include:
* $21.7 million for a science and technology building at the University of Missouri in Kansas City.
* $15.8 million for land and facility acquisition for the University of Missouri at St. Louis.
* $12.3 million for a business building at Southeast Missouri State University.
* $14 million for a general classroom building at Southwest Missouri State University
