It looks like the Ellis Fischel Cancer Hospital might actually see the light of day after all.

The Columbia Tribune reports:

Gov. Matt Blunt is giving new life to a $31.2 million project for Ellis Fischel Cancer Hospital stripped from a higher education funding bill making its way through the legislature.

Blunt plans to include money for the University of Missouri-Columbia project, as well as funds for a pharmacy building at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, in a supplemental appropriations bill to be debated early next year.

Both projects were proposed as part of Blunt’s $350 million plan to use proceeds from the partial asset sale of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority to fund capital improvement projects. But Republican leaders cut them out after Sens. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia, and Jolie Justus, D-Kansas City, refused to back off their opposition to the governor’s plan.

Blunt says he’s including both projects in a one-time appropriations bill next year. Every year, the legislature takes up a supplemental appropriations bill at the beginning of each session based on recommendations from the governor.

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