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Center to lose guarantee of funds

Building the center was a top priority for former House Speaker Johnnie Byrd Jr.

By ALISA ULFERTS
Published April 28, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - A deal between the House and Senate will let the Johnnie B. Byrd Sr. Alzheimer's Center & Research Institute in Tampa keep its name. But it will lose its annual guarantee of $15-million in state funds.

A Senate panel voted last month to rename the center after former President Ronald Reagan, who died in June of complications from the disease.

The center originally was named after the father of former House Speaker Johnnie B. Byrd Jr., who also died of the disease. In removing the Byrd name, the panel said Byrd Jr.'s controversial reign as speaker from 2002 through 2004 could have a negative impact on the center. Building the center was one of Byrd's top priorities as speaker.

But even more troublesome to the Senate panel was the law that guaranteed the center $15-million in public money each year. It voted to gut the financing.

The renaming bill came before the entire Senate on Wednesday. When senators said they liked the Reagan name, bill sponsor Sen. Burt Saunders said letting the center keep the Byrd name was the only way the House would agree to repeal the $15-million provision. The center will get $15-million next year in the budget, Saunders said, but will then have to ask for the money like everyone else.

"I agree with you the name Ronald Reagan would engender more support," said Saunders, R-Naples. "But there is an agreement with the House."

Both the Senate and House still must take a final vote on the measure.

The deal was discussed the same day the Byrd center was awarded Florida's first Alzheimer's Disease Research Center grant from the National Institute on Aging. The grant, for $7-million over five years, will support three projects targeted at understanding the progression of Alzheimer's, as well as support core facilities to assess the disease in patients.

Center officials pointed to the grant as evidence they are doing well and deserve to continue receiving funds from the state.

"I think we're doing great science, and I think the NIA grant proves that," said Melanie Meyer, the institute's chief of external affairs. Not having the guaranteed money could make it harder to hire scientists, she said.

"It's easier to recruit scientists when they're heading to a place with a long-term commitment to their mission," Meyer said.

Meyer was troubled by Saunders' claim that he had trouble getting financial information from the center. "I personally brought Sen. Saunders audited financial statements from our inception" through fiscal 2003, Meyer said.

[Last modified April 28, 2005, 13:54:03]