Lawmakers Delay Gift For Bsu Engineering School

Legislators have put Micron Technology’s $6 million contribution for a Boise State University engineering school on hold.

The Legislature’s budget writing panel blocked a measure Friday that would have authorized Boise State to accept the Micron gift and raise another $7 million for a College of Engineering building.

Sponsors will try again Monday, but critics of the idea said they still may have the upper hand.

“There’s still enough concern that it’s not a go,” said Sen. Marguerite McLaughlin, D-Orofino.

McLaughlin and other members of the budget panel are discussing the issue because of a state law that requires lawmakers to approve, in advance, public building construction projects, even for those paid by private funds.

If Boise State can raise the $13 million to build the facility, it will cost Idaho taxpayers about $129,000 a year in operational and maintenance costs, lawmakers say.

Most of the members of the 20-member budget panel are from the northern and southern edges of the state, where resentment of the state Board of Education’s decision to create a Boise State engineering school runs high.

“They simply don’t want Boise to have an engineering school and this is the only way they can oppose it,” said Rep. Kitty Gurnsey, R-Boise, the resolution’s sponsor.

But critics of a Boise State engineering school objected to the language in Gurnsey’s resolution. Passing it would, in essence, put the legislature on record endorsing the engineering school, said Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert.