No opposition surfaced Tuesday in a House Appropriations Committee hearing on a bill that would authorize funding for a new building for the University of Montana-Helena College of Technology.

House Bill 560, sponsored by Rep. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena, authorizes the state to issue some $7 million in bonds to build a new HCT building at the school's Poplar campus on Airport Road.

Among the locals lining up in support of the bill were UM-HCT president Steve Hoyle, Sen. Mike Cooney, D-Helena, former Helena mayor Russ Ritter and student body president Joe Clark.

Total cost of the building is around $13 million. Some of the difference would be made up for by sale of the college's Donaldson Building on Roberts Street. The college currently uses six buildings in four different sites around town, and would like to consolidate.

"A decision was made early on (in the session) that there would be no new building program this session," Kaufmann said. "So we structured the bill to have no fiscal impact this biennium. This puts a package together in a way that doesn't spend any money for two years but allows a deal to be put together over the next two years."

Still, because it authorizes new debt for the state, the bill needs a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the Legislature to pass. The bill needs only a simple majority to get through the committee.

The college's main administrative offices, student services and many classrooms are in the Donaldson Building across the street from Helena High. The Poplar campus houses trade programs in diesel, aviation, welding and nursing. Classes are also held at the Rocky Mountain Emergency Services Training Center and at the Ray Bjork Elementary School in town.

"People may agree we're short on finances, but we shouldn't be short-sighted," Kaufmann said. "Two-year technical education is the wave of the future, and the most critical component of economic development in Montana is making an investment in that higher education."

The bill is separate from a resolution introduced by Dave Lewis, R-Helena, urging cooperation between the Board of Regents and Lewis and Clark County on a new building. The resolution, which passed the House and is in the Senate, calls for the county to issue the bonds for the building and lease the building to the state until the bonds are paid off.

The committee took no action on Kaufmann's bill Wednesday.