Money found for UM-COT branch campus. Legislature set to decide whether to start Bitterroot campus

Money for basic infrastructure and planning for a college of technology in Ravalli County is included in an important spending bill hitting the Senate floor this week.

By a slim 10-9 margin an amendment passed in the Senate Finance and Claims Committee Wednesday night that takes $2 million from an executive branch project in the general fund and earmarks it for a branch campus of the University of Montana College of Technology.

House Bill 830, a massive spending bill for capital projects throughout the state, then unanimously passed the committee Wednesday and had its first reading on the Senate Floor Thursday. It could come up for a vote of the full Senate Friday, according to Sen. Rick Laible, R-Darby, the sponsor of the amendment. The bill would still need the approval of a joint committee of both houses before eventually landing on Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s desk for his signature.

by PERRY PEARSON – Ravalli Republic

Full Story: http://www.ravallirepublic.com/articles/2007/04/13/news/news02.txt

Contact Sen. Laible at [email protected]