The Senate leader accuses the Attorney General of instigating stall tactics that have, at present, blocked a plan to finance college capital improvements.
Senate President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons (R-Kirkwood) accuses Democrats of putting politics over people in their filibuster of the MOHELA bill; the bill that would use assets from the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority to pay for construction on college campuses. And Gibbons tells Missourinet affiliate KREI Democrats don’t want to give Governor Blunt a victory a year before his re-election campaign against Democrat Attorney General Jay Nixon. Gibbons says it’s hard to see a way out of the impasse aside from Nixon deciding against a run for governor.
Nixon, also on KREI, turns the tables on the accusation, saying that it’s Gibbons and his people who are pushing a bill that is not in the best interest of Missouri. Nixon says Gibbons shouldn’t blame people outside the Senate for not getting the MOHELA bill through. Nixon says the MOHELA plan would hurt the agency’s ability to provide low-interest loans to college students and he claims it’s illegal and hints that a lawsuit will be filed even if the plan makes it through the legislature.