By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Missouri's top House Republican says some of the money from the sale of student loans should go toward paying off public debt.
Governor Matt Blunt, a fellow Republican, wants to sell off some of the assets of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) and use the money for higher education.
That sale is expected to raise 450 (M) million dollars. But House Speaker Rod Jetton says $75 million of that should go toward paying down bond debt.
"Any time you can reduce your debt, it's a good thing," Jetton said last week. "Now is it the most sexy thing in the world to spend money on? No. The people that file through my office every day asking for higher appropriations and more spending and more programs and all that, do they get excited when I say we should put some money on debt? No, they do not."
The state has about $2.5 billion in outstanding bond debt.
The sale of MOHELA loans, though, might not happen immediately. Attorney General Jay Nixon has sued the agency's directors, claiming they broke the state's open meetings law when they discussed the plan in secret.