Some city leaders say they’ll continue to support Mizzou at state Capitol

Despite bleak findings in Nicole Galloway’s audit of the University of Missouri system, leaders at the Columbia Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday they will continue to support Mizzou and its efforts to lobby for more funding at the state Capitol.

“We’re going to be supportive of our university and we’re going to continue to fight for the things that are going to be good for Columbia, good for our region and good for our state,” said Chamber of Commerce President Matt McCormick.

Every year, the Chamber of Commerce lays out legislative priorities it wants to take to Jefferson City. They can relate to business, economic development or education. This year, the chamber is focusing specifically on MU’s research reactor, something it feels could potentially be a huge economic development driver. Last year, the chamber succeeded in securing most of the funding for it but fell short, and then the state withheld some of the money.

“The nice thing is our lawmakers, especially our local delegation, have been very supportive of Columbia and have been very supportive of the university working through a lot of the things they’ve had to work through the past few years at the state level and also the local level,” said McCormick.

McCormick said going forward in Jefferson City could be a struggle, but they’re prepared to keep fighting for the university and the system in a supporting role.

“We have experts within our organization we rely on, and we rely on our local delegation on working through that process and what part we play in that,” he said. “It’s a system thing they have to work through.”

ABC17 News reached out to all the local representatives and senators for Boone County but did not hear back or they declined to comment specifically on the audit.