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Hartford Courant - Murphy Weighs In On Budget
Dec 16, 04:32 PM
Congressman Criticizes Rell’s Plan To Cut Stem Cell Funding
By ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER
U.S. Rep. Christopher Murphy waded into a state budget dispute Tuesday, urging Gov. M. Jodi Rell and legislative leaders to reject a proposal to eliminate $10 million in stem cell research funding for 2010.
As a state senator, Murphy helped lead the effort in 2005 to commit the state to funding $100 million in stem cell research over 10 years. Since then, Connecticut has provided $39.4 million in grants to researchers at the University of Connecticut, Yale University and Wesleyan University.
But with a large state budget deficit, Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who also played a lead role in putting state money into stem cell research, has proposed putting the next installment of $10 million into the general fund rather than into stem cell research.
In a conference call with stem cell researchers and reporters Tuesday, Murphy said that Connecticut has laid the groundwork to be a leader in stem cell research. Cutting the funding now would hurt the state’s ability to build on its foundation, sending the wrong message to potential investors just as the federal government dispenses an unprecedented amount of money for stem cell work, he said. “This is exactly the wrong moment to draw down or draw back our commitment to stem cell research,” Murphy said. Murphy, D-5th District, said that state lawmakers who passed the $100 million commitment did not expect that funding it would always be easy.
“We knew when we made the commitment in 2005 that there were going to be years during that decade that it would be tough to make good on that promise,” Murphy said.
Rell’s proposal probably will face opposition from state legislators as well. Democratic leaders in the legislature have said that they see stem cell research as a source of jobs, and that cutting the funding could hurt the economy. In a budget document released Monday, legislative Democrats criticized Rell’s proposal to cut the stem cell money, saying that it was the wrong thing to do.
On Tuesday, Rell spokesman Rich Harris reaffirmed the governor’s commitment to stem cell research and defended her proposal to delay the funding.
“It was Gov. Rell, after all, who first proposed funding stem cell research in Connecticut and she remains committed to the future of the program,” Harris said in a written statement. “However, when the state budget – just three months old – is nearly half a billion dollars in deficit, spending simply must be prioritized.
“ Rell proposed in 2005 an initial investment of $20 million in stem cell research, using money from what, at the time, was a budget surplus. State legislators ultimately passed a plan to spend $100 million over 10 years.
The yearly installments of grant funding now come from the state’s tobacco and health trust fund.
