Take a look at the HTML::Template module. It allows you to build a hash containing the list box entries, while keeping your HTML code simple. Here's an excerpt from code using HTML::Template. It builds table rows of check boxes, rather than list box entries, but the code would be similar.

Sample perl (using DBI):

while ($sth->fetch) {
    my %hash = (description => $description, itemNum => $itemNum);
    push @items,  \%hash;
}
$tmpl->param(items => \@items);
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Corresponding template excerpt:

<TMPL_LOOP name="items">
    <tr>
    <td>
    <INPUT id=<TMPL_VAR name="itemNum"> name=<TMPL_VAR name="itemNum">
+ type=checkbox>
    <LABEL for="<TMPL_VAR name="itemNum">"><TMPL_VAR name="description
+"></LABEL>
    </td>
</tr>
</TMPL_LOOP>
[download]