Theo Keith / KCOU News / April 15, 2010
JEFFERSON CITY — A Missouri House committee has voted to fill what has been a multistory hole in MU’s new Patient Care Tower, the unfunded Ellis Fischel Cancer Center.
The legislature has gone back and forth for months on funding for the center, which draws patients from across the state.
Lawmakers passed a budget last year that included $31 million for the center. But Gov. Jay Nixon withheld the money last summer in the name of budget cuts.
Ellis Fischel officials say they need to move from their aging building along I-70 because it’s too small.
Crews have started work on the new Patient Care Tower, right next University Hospital on the MU campus.
The Ellis Fischel money still has a ways to go after the House Budget Committee included it in a spending bill, using federal stimulus money. It has to pass the House and the Senate, then escape another budget-cutting withhold from the governor.
Last updated: 7:16 p.m. April 15, 2010
