Our View: Legislature should OK Northern building now

It seems like the standard story.

The proposed auto-diesel tech building at Montana State University-Northern is on a roller coaster ride.

Earlier in the 2013 legislative session, it appeared it was going on a fast track.

Although two Hi-Line lawmakers, Rep. Kris Hansen, R-Havre, and Rep.Wendy Warburton, R-Chinook, favored approving the building on a stand-alone piece of legislation, many others thought it should be part of a statewide package that would attract lawmaker support from throughout the state.

Then there was the question of whether the package should be paid for from the biennial budget, a plan favored by many Republicans, or by bonding, a plan backed by Gov. Steve Bullock and many of his fellow Democrats.

As happened two years ago, the whole thing now seems up in the air.

Frankly, we could care less how the building is financed or what politicians or political group gets the credit. We want the building built.

Construction would be a shot in the arm to Northern, which has a world-class program.

Students are now turned away because there is no room.

Graduates who leave the program are in short supply and get high-paying jobs, many of them offered by employers before thestudents get out of school.

The grads provide a service that is badly needed in this area. Those who want to leave the area can get good jobs elsewhere, especially in the Bakken oilfields.

Construction of the building would create many well-paying jobs in the construction industry and would be a real boost to the Havre economy.

Many of the other projects included in Bullock's JOBS bill would also provide opportunities to students throughout the state who are looking at entering other fields.

Nothing would be more important to Montana than providing quality campus facilities so our students can get a good education and compete in the work force.

State lawmakers will be tired, worn out and in the midst of bickering, partisan and otherwise, as the session draws to a close. Sometimes that's when they do their best work.

In the midst of the rush to adjourn, they should find the time to agree to a plan that would improve the sate's educational facilities, provide a tremendous boost to Northern and give more students an o

pportunity to get into a career with a great future.