More than $70 million from the Georgia Legislature puts the Medical College of Georgia well on the way to building new medical school and dental school buildings, President Daniel W. Rahn said Monday. Still to be worked out is how MCG will acquire the ground on which they will sit.

Dr. Rahn gave an update on the school and the expansion of medical education to the Rotary Club of Augusta on Monday.

He credited Augusta and Columbia County legislators, particularly House Appropriations Committee Chairman Ben Harbin, for $70 million to build a new home for the School of Dentistry. The legislators also added $3 million to begin planning and design for a new School of Medicine building that would allow for 240 students per class, up from 190 per class, Dr. Rahn said.

"This funding would not be present without their strong efforts and their strong support," he said.

The dental school funding is the largest capital outlay on a single project in the history of the University System of Georgia, Dr. Rahn said.

The entire medical-dental school construction, which Mr. Harbin said would be more than $200 million, would also likely make it one of the biggest projects in the city's history.

The school is planning on building the new campus on the grounds of the neighboring Gilbert Manor housing complex and is talking to the city about how it might be acquired from the Augusta Housing Authority and transferred to MCG, Dr. Rahn said.

The problem is that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development signed off on it being sold to MCG, not the city, so how the city can help still has to be worked out, Administrator Fred Russell said. He is working on a package that will likely be about $10 million that he expects will go to the Augusta Commission in the next 30 days or so. How that will be financed also needs to be determined, but Mr. Russell said he is considering several options.

Either way, he said, the city is helping itself by working this out for MCG.

"That investment is going to help spur on a $200 million investment in our community, which is jobs and jobs and jobs," Mr. Russell said. "Obviously, if I can invest 10 and get $200 million, that's not a bad deal."