Regional Economic News

Good news for Top Ten Wines and other local Columbia businesses: Jay Nixon agreed today to seek budget cuts that don't affect colleges and universities in Missouri. The stipulation for higher education is a concurrent tuition freeze with the aim of retaining or boosting current enrollment.

The University is the largest employer in Columbia and is the focal point for much of the economic development around the region. Substantial business development happens as a result of not only the University's scientific research facilities (their nanotech program to pharmaceutical development comes readily to mind) but also through the myriad programs, competitions, and resources that draw people to Columbia from all over the world. Significant budget cuts would certainly have made a massive dent in the local economy; a conservative guess of mine would be that Columbia would start looking a lot like Cape Girardeau.

From the Post-Dispatch, the Columbia Tribune, and the Columbia Missourian. Best of all, from Gary Forsee.

MU News Bureau staffwriter Kelsey Jackson was consulted for this post.