Although his party has denounced an audit of the state’s higher education loan authority, Republican Gov. Matt Blunt has endorsed it.

Blunt said yesterday that he supported Democratic State Auditor Susan Montee’s review of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, which is targeted as a funding source for his $350 million college construction plan.

In a letter to Montee, Blunt praised her audit because the “efficient operation” of MOHELA “would fulfill a critical need for Missouri students.”

The governor’s letter was dated Tuesday, the same day the Missouri Republican Party issued a news release decrying Montee’s review as a “politically motivated audit that threatens to stand in the way of providing millions of dollars for Missouri students.”

The state’s student loan agency has come under scrutiny since Blunt proposed a year ago to sell its assets as a way to fund his higher education initiative.

The most recent version of the plan was approved by the MOHELA board last fall and now awaits legislative authorization. It would transfer $350 million over six years to the Missouri Development Finance Board, which would pass most of that money onto college construction projects.

In return, MOHELA would be given more than $1 billion in tax-exempt bonding authority over 10 years to underwrite additional loans. The University of Missouri also would consider using more MOHELA loans, and the governor’s administration would support legislative proposals, allowing the quasi-governmental agency to originate its own loans.

Montee announced at her inauguration earlier this week that MOHELA would be her first audit because of her concerns about how the loan authority has used its money and, in particular, a severance package paid out to fired Executive Director Michael Cummins.

Blunt said Montee’s audit should go back to 1996 and pay particular attention to pension plans and other compensation plans for MOHELA’s employees and executives.

The governor’s letter specifically mentions allegations of “duplicate pension plans” for MOHELA employees but offers no details.

A spokesman for the governor said Blunt’s office had heard reports that some MOHELA pension plans did not comply with state law.

“We hope the audit will tell us what their pension plans look like and whether or not anyone is getting a sweetheart deal,” Blunt spokesman Rich Chrismer said.

Chrismer said Blunt does not believe the audit should affect the timetable for his plan.

Republican Party spokesman Paul Sloca said yesterday that an outside analysis already has concluded that MOHELA should be able to give up $350 million for Blunt’s plan and remain financially sound.

“The governor’s office has independent information showing that it’s a solid deal and can turn that over to the auditor,” Sloca said. “We still think the bottom line is that the only reason this audit is being conducted is for political purposes.”

Montee denied allegations of partisanship. She said her office would not take any position about whether the sale should happen but would provide lawmakers with as much information as possible as they consider the proposal.

“If we don’t have the adequate information to make a decision or to make a law, then we shouldn’t be doing it,” she said yesterday. “We should wait until we know what we’re talking about.”

Montee said her office, which began the first interviews of the MOHELA audit on Monday, has yet to define a scope.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 12th, 2007 at 5:44 am and is filed under College Loans, Education, Student Loan. Tags: College, Education, Loans, Student, Student Loan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.