Huckabee rescinds $2 million for UAMS projects

BYLINE: By ANDREW DeMILLO, Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: LITTLE ROCK

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Thursday rescinded $2 million in funding he announced for researching cancer and diabetes after legislators objected to a proposed shuffling of University of Arkansas system dollars to pay for the projects.

In a letter dated Thursday to UA System President Alan Sugg, Huckabee revoked the funds he had announced as seed money for a cancer center to be named after the late Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller and to establish an endowed chair to research diabetes.

"The funds I had hoped would be received gladly by the UA System will now be re-directed to other state needs where they hopefully will be welcomed without question or fear," Huckabee wrote.

Huckabee announced the funding for the projects at UAMS last month, but most of the money wasn't given directly to the school but to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The UA System had planned to shift money from its colleges for the UAMS programs, but Sugg said this week he would hold off on spending the money until lawmakers' questions were answered and referred to the transfer plan as "flawed."

Huckabee wrote in a separate letter to Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration Director Richard Weiss that he would instead authorize the release of $878,775 to the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission and $621,225 to the University of Central Arkansas.

Huckabee said in the letter that he would release $500,000 to UAMS.

Huckabee defended the proposed transfer of the funds in his letter to Sugg.

"It is very disappointing that fears of legislative retaliation have given you pause in accepting the grants and your public comments to the effect that the grants were 'flawed,' have created a cloud of controversy over something as worthwhile as these projects," he wrote.

Huckabee wrote that Sugg and UA system attorneys agreed that the transfer would be proper and legal.

Sugg said that he thought Huckabee's effort was well-intended, but said he believed more legislative guidance was needed before transferring the funds. Sugg said Huckabee told him that if he didn't immediately transfer the funds, they would be withdrawn.

"The authority may be there, but we have never transferred this amount of funds before between institutions," Sugg said. "It's a complex issue and I didn't feel comfortable in making the decision to transfer these funds without the help of the General Assembly."

In the two-page letter, Huckabee singled out Sen. Percy Malone, who had criticized the proposed transfer of funds for the center and said Malone "has been enriched with his numerous contracts with the state to provide everything from pharmaceuticals, technology services and leased building space while a sitting legislator."

"I don't recall those multiple business arrangements to have been questioned by his colleagues in the Legislature, yet we are allowing his charges of impropriety to impede the progress of UAMS," Huckabee wrote.

Malone, D-Arkadelphia, has leased office space to the Employment Security Department and has held computer services contracts with the administation under former governors Bill Clinton and Jim Guy Tucker.

"All of the things I've ever done have been scrutinized and scrutinized and shown to be on the up and up," Malone said. "I've raised no questions on this discussion that I wouldn't with any other government official."

Huckabee called the criticism of the transfer "petty and partisan" and accused legislators of wanting to review the actions of a previous Legislature.

Incoming Senate President Jack Critcher, who had said the money should not be spent until the arrangement was reviewed, called Huckabee's decision to revoke the funding and his comments in the letter unfortunate.

"I'm surprised by it because that's not the Governor Huckabee that I have gotten to know in the last couple of years," said Critcher, D-Batesville.

Huckabee, a Republican who has served since 1996, is term limited and leaves office Tuesday. Democratic Attorney General Mike Beebe will be sworn in as governor next week.

Weiss said Huckabee does have the authority to rescind the money because it hasn't been spent.

UAMS spokeswoman Leslie Taylor said the school respected Huckabee's decision to revoke the funds.

The $1 million for the cancer center was announced as "seed money" for a new $125 million cancer institute that would be located adjacent to the current center at UAMS in Little Rock. Huckabee had recommended the center be named after Rockefeller, who died in July from a rare blood condition.

The center's executive director, Dr. James Suen, has said UAMS already has about $5 million in private donations pledged for the new center and the campus has talked with legislative leaders about additional funding.

Taylor said she doesn't believe the controversy over the money will affect efforts to gain more funding from the Legislature.

"The Legislature has always been supportive of UAMS and the cancer research center," she said. "I think they will certainly have open minds and will listen to us."