State college funding plan challenged

A program used to fund facilities and equipment on state colleges and universities came under attack Thursday in a hearing before an Oklahoma Supreme Court referee.

The Oklahoma Development Finance Authority is seeking to sell bonds for various projects. It is asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to validate the projects.

Bonds are sold to raise funds for the projects. The debt on the bond is retired through avenues such as fees and a legislative appropriation.

But three attorneys have filed challenges alleging the measure is unconstitutional and should not include $38.5 million for a new building for the state medical examiner’s office at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond.

Attorneys Jerry Fent and Cliff Elliott, a former member of the Council of Bond Oversight, believe the entire program is unconstitutional.

Fent said the program was cre- ated in 2002 and violates the constitutional prohibition against logrolling, or including more than one subject in a bill.

Elliott said the program amounts to a delegation of power by the Legislature to another entity for duties lawmakers are charged with performing. The Legislature has the power of the purse, Elliott said.

The Master Lease program lets colleges bypass the Legislature, Elliott said.

Attorney Patrick Anderson, a Republican senator from Enid, said that including the medical examiner’s office in the project is improper because lawmakers have yet to approve it.

Anderson said allowing it would set precedent from lawmakers circumvent the legislative process and put pet projects into the Master Lease program.

Prospective ruling sought

Gary Bush, an attorney for the Oklahoma Development Finance Authority, said the program saves colleges and universities money through reduced interest rates.

Bush said if the state’s high court rules that the program is illegal, he asked that the ruling be prospective and not apply to the more than $600 million in bonds already issued. If the courts find it is illegal and makes the ruling retroactive, Bush said he couldn’t image the chaos that would be created.

But Fent said a prospective opinion would send a message that is acceptable for attorneys to be ignorant of the law.

Supreme Court referee Greg Albert heard the arguments and will issue a report to the full court.