Chamber Directors Lobby for Research Funds

A group of Northwest Arkansas Chamber of Commerce directors is trying to talk members of the 83rd Arkansas General Assembly into sponsoring a bill that would provide $20 million in matching grant funds for research over the next two years.

The money would come from Gov. Mike Huckabee’s $100 million general improvement fund (GIF) and would be distributed to universities throughout the state, primarily to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock since those are the state’s largest research institutions. But Huckabee would likely get the final say concerning who gets the money and how much would be released during the biennium.

In addition to that $100 million, the Legislature has another $100 million GIF for a total of $200 million to be used for general improvements over the next two years. The GIFs consist of money from interest earnings and carryover money that state agencies didn’t spend during the previous biennium.

The $20 million proposal is being pushed by the Northwest Arkansas Regional Chamber of Commerce, which consists of Chambers of Commerce in Springdale, Fayetteville, Rogers, Bentonville/Bella Vista and Siloam Springs.

Richard Hudson, vice chancellor for government and community relations at the UA in Fayetteville, said the one-time matching funds wouldn’t be needed if the Fayetteville campus could get an increase in its operating allowance from the legislature, but that’s not going to happen.

The UA’s Fayetteville campus receives $92 million per year from the state for operations. That amount is $17 million to $20 million below allocations for similar flagship institutions in other states, Hudson said.

A biennium ago

During the last session in 1999, the Legislature created the Arkansas Research Matching Fund when it passed Act 1545. The law set aside $10 million in one-time funding from the governor’s GIF budget that could be used to match research grants.

So far, Huckabee has released $3.3 million of that amount to the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority, which in turn gave about two-thirds of it (about $2.2 million) to the UA in Fayetteville to match research grants. Most of those grants were from the National Science Foundation.

Hudson said he doesn’t know if Huckabee will release the other $6.7 million to ASTA before the biennium ends on June 30. He said the Fayetteville campus needs $3 million to $4 million to match pending grants.

Instead, Huckabee could use the money for other general improvements like the construction of new prisons or purchasing computers.

In addition to money coming from the governor’s side of the GIF pool, the Legislature in 1999 also passed Act 684, which provided $7 million to the UA’s flagship campus for “research infrastructure and grant matching” during the biennium. That money came from the Legislature’s GIF and will likely be reappropriated during the current session, Hudson said.

That means the Fayetteville campus has received almost $10 million so far in total state GIF funds for matching research grants during the current biennium, but that amount could double if the new law is passed.

More projects than money

Huckabee, as usual, doesn’t have enough money to go around.

“He has more projects than he has money,” Hudson said. “The Legislature puts these projects in his column and gives him half enough money to pay for them. … The governor is becoming increasingly aware of the importance of research.”

First, a legislator must draft the proposal in the form of a bill, but the Chamber directors think it will be easy to find a sponsor.

Although the proposal is being pushed by Northwest Arkansas interests, it would benefit the entire state, said Perry Webb, president of the Springdale Chamber of Commerce. The grant money would also be available to smaller state colleges that do research.

The group is asking that the funds be distributed based on research, not on a per-student basis, Webb said.

Hudson said nobody will know the outcome of the proposal will be until the last week or so of the two-months legislative session since that’s when the Legislature addresses budget issues.