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January 09, 2009, 02:29 PM ET
No More University Buildings, Says Indiana Governor
More bad news for architecture firms and construction companies hurt by canceled and postponed building projects. Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana has called for a two-year moratorium on university construction — a proposal that could affect $200-million in projects in the current state budget, according to The Courier-Journal. The governor also proposed stopping most other state construction projects, with the exception of two prisons.
“State Budget Director Chris Ruhl said growing payments on bonds issued for past university construction projects are eating up dollars that could be spent on other higher-education priorities,” the paper reported. “Indiana has $1.2-billion in outstanding, state-funded university debt — more than one-fourth of the state’s total debt load. That will require the state to spend $176-million this year on bond payments, a 35 percent increase from 2007.”
The Courier-Journal says that the moratorium would not stop projects already underway. It could, however, affect engineering and design work on a planned medical building at Indiana University Southeast.
Democrats in the state called the moratorium “short-sighted” and “anti-stimulus.”
The news from Indiana stands in contrast to news from Michigan, where the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has $1.5-billion in construction underway and another $500-million in construction planned, effectively propping up the struggling local construction industry.
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