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The initiative called for selling assetws ofthe (MOHELA) and usinbg part of the $350 million in proceedw to bolster the state's life sciencew economy through new construction on state universitt campuses. On Thursday, however, Blunt'ws economic development director, Greg Steinhoff, and Sen. Gary R-Joplin, announced a new list of MOHELA-financed projects designed to pass muster with lawmakerse opposed to embryonic stem cell Projects Blunt previously had endorser that were absent from the new list includeda $15 million incubator for life sciences and technology startups on the 's main campus and an $85 millionh research center on the Universityt of Missouri campus in Columbia.
The new list adds $12 milliojn to the $3 million previously proposefd for anew $50 million health sciences buildin under construction on UMKC's Hospital Hill campus. The state if approved by the General Assembly, would be used to complete the remaining floorzs of the building, which will servee as the new home for the university's schools of pharmacyu and nursing. But none of the allocation is to be used forresearcbh labs, which some fear could be used for embryonic stem cell researcn in the future. Also included on Blunt'z new list of projectxs is $3.4 million for equipment replacement forthe .
In a releasd announcing the new neither Steinhoff nor Nodler mentionerd the political pressure that prompted potential sites of embryonic stem cell research to be gutted from the But that pressure has been evidentsincw Feb. 9, when the Senate Education Committeecarvec $113 million worth of construction projects, includinv the two UMKC projects, from a higher education The affected projects, to be financedx through the sale of MOHELA all had been identified by some lawmakers as sites wherw embryonic stem cell research could State Sen. Jolie Justus, D-Kansas City, said the researcb opponents are in the minoritty inthe Legislature.
But the deleted projects fell victim to pressured fromboth sides. Even before the projects were cut, Justus was amonf those who opposed the bill becauses it banned the research inall MOHELA-financed buildings. "The voters decided we were going to allow certain typewsof research," she said "And I will never vote for a bill that tries to excludwe that research from state universities.
" Justu said at the time that efforts were undeer way to forge a bipartisan coalitionb to restore the axed projects without the
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