Alzheimer's Research In Budget Cross Hairs

TALLAHASSEE - The Byrd Alzheimer's Center could have a tough battle ahead to keep its funding this year, if Monday's talk in the Senate was any indication.

To reach a budget reduction target of 10 percent, the state Department of Elder Affairs proposes cutting up to $20 million for Tampa's fledgling Johnnie B. Byrd, Sr. Alzheimer's Center and Research Institute.

Gov. Charlie Crist mandated this summer that all agencies propose ways to trim their budgets by 10 percent in anticipation of the September special session, when lawmakers will have to plug a $1.1 billion hole in the current $71 billion budget. Lawmakers are meeting in committees this week to debate where to make cuts.

'As a former researcher myself, this was a very difficult decision for us,' Elder Affairs Secretary Douglas Beach told the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee as he outlined cuts for the Byrd Center.

'However, our problem is that we have programs that have had flat funding over the last five years; our waiting lists have increased nearly 20 percent over the last year, and so we're just looking for ways to keep as many seniors on programs as possible.'

Choosing Services Over Research

That argument carried weight with several panel members.

'Of all the things listed, that would be where I would cut,' committee Vice Chairwoman Nan Rich, D-Sunrise, said Monday. 'Because I don't want to cut direct services. And the only way that you could get away without cutting direct services in elder affairs would be to do the cut to the Johnnie Byrd Center. Would we like to have more research? Yes. But the problem is that, at this point, we're choosing between research and direct services to people.'

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, another member of the panel, said afterward that 'my understanding is that the Byrd Center has spent quite a bit of money on overhead, on travel, on conferences, and on meetings. And while much good may have come of all of that ... before I will vote to cut services to a family that's caring for an Alzheimer's patient ... I would rather cut services to people who talk about Alzheimer's.'

Pitting services against research is a false choice, said center spokeswoman Melanie Meyer.

'It's just not an either-or,' Meyer said. 'We don't either-or cancer, or the other diseases on the horizon that we care about.'

Rep. Ed Homan, R-Tampa, agreed. 'Everything we provide as services came as result of research. That's the reason we are able to treat people.'

'Let's Finish The Bridge'

In an interview, Homan compared cutting funding for Byrd, created in 2004, to stopping work on a bridge halfway built. Eventually, the center will win its funding competitively, he said, reacting to calls from some lawmakers and researchers to award funding now reserved for the Byrd Center on a peer-reviewed, competitive basis.

'I'm for that,' Homan said. 'But how can you be competitive when you're a bridge that's not even finished? Let's finish the bridge first.'

The Department of Elder Affairs' budget-cutting plan contains three proposed cuts, including $2.26 million from a program providing day care and other community services for Alzheimer's patients who would otherwise wind up in a nursing home. The cut would not end services for existing clients but would immediately suspend enrollment. The third proposal would trim construction dollars for senior centers by $2.65 million.

Meyer raised concerns about Alzheimer's initiatives taking the brunt of the department's proposed reductions. 'It makes me worry that elderly people are an undervalued society in this state.'