Trustees to discuss bond issues UMS panel meets early next week

BANGOR – Two proposed bond issues, including $62 million for classroom and laboratory upgrades, are expected to be among the focal points when University of Maine System trustees meet Sunday and Monday.

Trustees will review and likely vote whether to endorse the proposals.

The $62 million bond would be spread over three years, with funding going to all UM campuses primarily for classroom and laboratory upgrades and renovations.

“To my mind, at least, there’s nothing peripheral or unimportant here,” interim UMS Chancellor Terrence MacTaggart said Thursday.

He said that $62 million as a lump sum appears to be a lot of money, “but in any given year, the drawdown is quite a bit less.”

The second year would be the largest expenditure: $22.5 million to be dispersed to each system campus. A second capital improvement bond, for $66 million, also will be discussed. The $66 million would be used for improvements to research and development facilities at the system’s Orono and southern Maine campuses.

The purpose of the second bond would be to enhance the universities’ ability to receive federal research funds and generate new products, technologies and private sector job growth. Gov. John Baldacci’s proposed budget also shows a desire to leverage use of state funds to obtain more federal dollars.

The governor’s budget proposes to increase funding to the Maine Economic Improvement Fund by 16.7 percent. That fund was established by the Legislature in 1997 to help pay for research to develop new products, technologies and companies.

Last year, UMS was able to use $14.5 million in state funds to obtain $42.7 million in federal grants and contracts.

That state funding to attract federal dollars is something that the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, recommended in a recent review of Maine and its potential.

“It reflects much of what we asked for,” MacTaggart said. The dollar amounts aren’t exactly what the chancellor said was requested, but “it’s the best thing we’ve seen in about five years.”

“At least when it comes to investing in higher education, the governor put his money where his values are,” MacTaggart said.

UMS oversees the University of Maine in Orono; the University of Maine at Farmington; the University of Maine at Augusta, including University College of Bangor; the University of Maine at Machias; the University of Maine at Presque Isle; and the University of Southern Maine in Portland.

The board of trustees will meet Sunday and Monday at the system offices in Bangor.