Chambana Sun

The state Senate Higher Education Committee held a hearing recently to get more information about funding for the University of Illinois' Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) project, a $1.2 billion plan for a new university campus.

DPI involves plans for a 1-million-square-foot engineering and research institute that the University of Illinois would operate. The institute is expected to have about 2,000 students and 100 faculty members.

Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Champaign) asked several questions to gain insight on the project. Rose asked the Office of Management and Budget Director Hans Zigmund whether deferred maintenance projects conflicted with DPI project funding.

Tim Killeen

"I think the chairman picked up on something here about the deferred maintenance issue," Rose said. "Can you explain again how you say those don't conflict?"

Zigmund noted that the projects come from different funding sources, including sales tax-funded bonds.

When Zigmund stated that there were long-term debt instruments with the Build Illinois Bond Fund, Rose interjected that the fund went way back.

"This has been a long-term debt, the fund goes way back," Rose said. "Shouldn't that be amortized off by now? As the debt amortizes out, does that free up additional funds to spend? Or is it terminated at that point?"

Zigmund said they needed authority to issue bonds in excess of $634 million.

Rose also asked how much money DPI's Midwest partners have committed to the project.

"Is their commitment solely the land or have they put dollars into it?" Rose said. "When this was announced in October 2017 it was a $1.2 billion effort, the state's got $500 million here and Ed previously mentioned several hundreds of millions of dollars. Does that get you back to $1.2 billion or are we missing a couple hundred million here or there?"

University of Illinois President Tim Killeen said he believes costs will surpass $1.2 billion.

Rose asked if the Build Illinois Fund could be used for an entity instead of a building.

"Can those Build Illinois Bond funds be used for what they're doing?" Rose said. "Are they limited solely to the design and engineering of a construction project?"

Zigmund confirmed they were limited to construction.

Rose asked about how teachers and students are hired at DPI.

Sanders noted that the students wouldn't be coming as students of DPI and would be coming from their respective schools to gain experience.

Ed Seidel, the vice president of economic development and innovation, pointed out that the faculty would be from the universities and would not be hired by DPI.