Legislator making a run for diabetes, Alzheimer's funding

A Tampa lawmaker is trying to convince Florida officials to spend millions of state dollars left over this fiscal year on Alzheimer's Disease and diabetes research initiatives in Tampa.

With barely two weeks remaining in 2008-2009, Rep. Kevin Ambler hopes the state will agree to pour as much as $11 million into the Johnnie B. Byrd, Sr. Alzheimer's Center & Research Institute and a diabetes research initiative at the University of South Florida.

The budget that lawmakers passed last month stipulates that certain funds not spent by July 1 of the current budget year must go toward recruiting and retaining businesses and high-wage jobs. According to the governor's Office of Tourism and Economic Development, that amounts to about $35 million.

At a meeting of the joint Legislative Budget Commission on Wednesday, development office director Dale Brill outlined a list of ongoing business development projects that would claim nearly all of that money. If contracts close on all of those projects - the details of which are confidential under state law -- they will leave only $281,000 unspent.

But Ambler, R-Tampa, is betting that not all of those companies will be ready to move forward in the next 13 days. "They may not be able to go to contract, or they have changed their minds," he said. "These projects have been in the queue for quite a while, so they have made other plans."

With that in mind, he said, he is talking with Brill and other staff in Gov. Charlie Crist's office about spending up to $11 million on the two Bay-area biomedical research programs.

The Byrd Center, which once enjoyed an earmark of $15 million in the annual state budget, received no funding during the spring legislative session for a second straight year. Byrd officials say that jeopardizes their prestigious designation through the National Institutes of Health as one of a handful of Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers around the country.

"If they lose their NIH accreditation, we lose 120 jobs that pay over $120,000 dollars," Ambler said. "To me that fits the category of retaining high-wage jobs in the state of Florida."

The Byrd Center formally became part of the University of South Florida this spring, where there is also a growing diabetes research initiative. USF hopes to locate the effort in a new building - but with additional funding, Ambler said, room could be made for diabetes researchers in the Byrd Center building on Fletcher Drive.

"It's an economical use of resources," Ambler said. "It's not going to be their permanent home, but if they need a place to have their clinic right now, that building is sitting there ... It solves an immediate problem and postures us for the future for expanding both facilities."

In an interview, OTTED's Brill called Ambler's idea "interesting" and "conceivable." But he doubts, he said, that millions of dollars will become available due to projects falling through. He said he expects to close on every contract he described to the budget commission.

"It's rare that we bat a thousand - but I also don't go into lose," Brill said.

Crist spokesman Sterling Ivey said the governor has not received not ready to voice an opinion. "We will review and give careful consideration to any information presented by the University."