The Medical College of Georgia is aiming to grab some federal stimulus funds even as officials scramble to keep its state research money from being cut in next year's budget.
Georgia Senate budget writers had chopped about $11 million in special funding initiatives to the school. Then it was discovered that about $5 million that was going to cancer research at the school was tobacco settlement money, which has restrictions on its use, said state Sen. Ed Tarver, D-Augusta. That money has since been restored, Mr. Tarver said.
It appears likely the rest of the research funds will return also, Mr. Tarver said after receiving assurances from House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin, R-Evans, and Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Hill, R-Reidsville.
That research funding over the past five years has allowed MCG to double the money it receives from the National Institutes of Health, said D. Douglas Miller, dean of the MCG School of Medicine.
"We're hoping and working very hard to show the state the value of that in terms of return on investment has been enormous," he said.
That is particularly true for the MCG Cancer Center, where it accounts for more than 40 percent of the budget, Director Kapil Bhalla said.
"This is the money that positions us and makes us competitive to go for all of the federal largesse, both the stimulus package money and the doubling of (National Cancer Institute) budget money," Dr. Bhalla said.
That funding could prove critical as the school competes for more than $200 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that the NIH has set aside to fund about 200 grants across the country. MCG is submitting about 70 proposals across all areas of science that could show immediate promise, Dr. Miller said.
"These are quick and intensive funding programs designed to really get a science program jump-started or its advances accelerated," he said.
As with all other areas of the federal stimulus package, including other areas of research funding that MCG will be competing for over the next several months, it would have an impact on the local economy, Dr. Bhalla said.
"It will create jobs, and buy supplies and equipment that will help the economy," he said. "It's stoking the economy at the high end of intellect. Research -- I think that is where America has to develop the cutting edge."
Reach Tom Corwin at (706) 823-3213 or tom.corwin@augustachronicle.com.
Comments
Great!!! Interesting that the state is so hell bent on taking money from MCG that they were trying to take tobacco settlement money which they couldn't legally do. MCG should have caught that a long time ago. Thanks to Sen. Tarver for fighting for Augusta. MCG should field a football team and possibly it would gain support from the Governor and legislators. :)
Field a football team? Have you seen some of the students down there. They couldn't beat a pee-wee league team.
'trying to take the tobacco settlement money which "they" couldn't legally do?' I think there is a general misunderstanding about what the master settlement agreement was intended for. It was intended to be used for tobacco use prevention and cessation programs to help keep youth from starting to use, and to help families to quit. 1/3 of the money was to be put into rural economic development to help tobacco farmers, 1/3 of the money was to be put into cancer research, and the remaining 1/3 of the money was to be put into tobacco use prevention programs. However, the Georgia Cancer Coalition has not met its goal since 2005 of creating the Nationally Recognized Research Powerhouse that it was supposed to have done, and continues to want more chances in terms of $$$ for luring high-paid scientists to Georgia. All this is at the expense of tobacco prevention programs. Tobacco Prevention works, has an evidence-base, and is the best way to decrease lung cancer as 80% of all lung cancers are tobacco-related. Why does the Legislature continue to allow these research projects to suck dollars at the expense of Georgians, while cutting off needed prevention programs?
Itsashame, I got your drift in earlier posts that funds should be spent on prevention instead of research. What can I say... there should be a balance without people in research in Augusta losing their jobs.
We're losing ours... so what's the difference.
That MCG should have known better is directly related to a phenomenon called Six degrees of Georgia Cancer Coalition, President Bill Todd. He is the connection to all things MSA related private and state… I don’t think the Governor could have appointed another person with more conflict of interest than this guy. Way to go Gov. Perdue. For any of those interested, please go to the GCC website and look at their wonderful noexistent work around tobacco prevention ….what a bunch of hoohaw…. In truth, their site should showcase their efforts to shut down the state’s tobacco control program through a variety of guerilla tactics—including diversion of monies and the most devastating tactic the placement of a double agent to infiltrate the department of public health. Unfortunately, blogger itisashame, they do deserve kudos for completing their “destroying state tobacco control” objective… job well done. Seems to me that anyone with a brain knows that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure….Why in the world don’t we spend monies on real prevention?
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