State loan agency MOHELA suffers first operating loss

For the first time in its nearly 30-year history, the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) has suffered an annual operating loss.

The state-chartered student loan agency lost $2.2 million in fiscal 2008, according to a preliminary financial report Ray Bayer, MOHELA’s executive director, presented to the agency’s board Friday.

The authority is feeling the squeeze of the credit crunch and the fallout from the auction-rate securities meltdown in February.

MOHELA also transferred $233.8 million to the controversial Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative, a fund Gov. Matt Blunt created to devote some of the money that had been slated for loans toward the construction of campus buildings instead.

The payment was part of an agreement that calls for the authority to transfer $350 million over the next six years to the state college construction program. In June, the authority had to delay payment to the fund due to concerns the payment would strain the authority's weakened financial position.

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