Plan to create Salk research fund goes on hold

Gov. Ed Rendell's initiative to boost the state's standing in the biomedical research field appears to be dead for at least for this year.

Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, R-Jefferson, decided there will be no time this fall for his chamber to deal with legislation to create the Jonas Salk Legacy Fund. Rendell proposed a $500 million fund to provide grants for biomedical research facilities, staff and equipment.

Before lawmakers left for the summer, senators agreed to consider a House-passed plan -- named after the scientist who developed the polio vaccine -- upon their return this fall. That apparently changed when Rendell and the House Democrats failed to deliver a funding plan for the unrelated issue of hazardous site cleanups before the summer break.

"When [the hazardous site cleanup fund] was moved from the spring by the governor to the fall, it essentially bumped Salk," said Todd Nyquist, a Scarnati spokesman.

To have the Senate blame him for the lack of action in the House mystifies him, Rendell said.

"It makes no sense," Rendell said in a telephone interview. "Why would you punish a good program like Salk, which could help maybe find a cure to Alzheimer's or other diseases and also be a great economic benefit to the people of Pennsylvania, creating great research jobs?"

Penn State University was among those hoping to benefit from the creation of this fund. Money would have been used, in part, to outfit a cancer center under construction at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Derry Twp.

"Penn State is at an important juncture in our facilities for biomedical research, so I am hopeful that this matter will be resolved," Penn State University President Graham Spanier said in an e-mail.

Sen. Pat Vance, R-Cumberland, supports the Penn State cancer center, but doesn't view the governor's plan for borrowing $500 million against the state's tobacco settlement revenues to pay for it as a reliable funding source.

She said those bonds would not have the full faith of the commonwealth behind them, making them what people have told her were "junk bonds."

"There was a large question whether the kind of money could ever have been raised to start with," Vance said. "So it may sound good, but I'm not sure when you look at the fine print, it actually is good."

Nyquist said Senate GOP leaders were not certain they could find the votes within their ranks to pass the Salk fund bill. "There hasn't been that much of an appetite to move it," Nyquist said.

And Nyquist said the Republican-controlled Senate has several items on its plate for the fall. These include energy issues, legislation to strengthen the state's open records law, and immigration reforms.

"We only have so many days on the calendar," Nyquist said.

On Tuesday, leaders of the Democratic-controlled House implored the Senate GOP leadership to take up the Salk initiative it passed in June.

"If we do not invest in the Salk Legacy Fund, we will soon watch high-tech companies and research hospitals take their jobs to states like California, Connecticut and Wisconsin," said House Majority Whip Keith McCall, D-Carbon, in a news release. "This is something that needs to be above politics."

Rendell said he, like the Senate, wanted hazardous site cleanup funding resolved last spring. But the House balked at a Senate-passed plan that would have redirected funds raised from a portion of the state's real estate transfer tax revenues earmarked for civic, environmental and educational causes.

Rendell said he was willing to "reluctantly sign" that plan if it reached his desk, even though it wasn't his preferred way to fund the cleanups.

JAN MURPHY: 232-0668 or jmurphy@patriot-news.com

-END-