SENATE SLASHES STEM-CELL FUNDS

State senators slashed Gov. Martin O'Malley's spending plan for stem-cell research to less than one-fourth of last year's funding level, eliciting an outcry from advocates, who say that such a budget cut would cripple the pioneering work in Maryland.

The belt-tightening during an early round of the budget process reflects growing concern in the General Assembly that a slowing economy might undercut the state's finances. The latest revenue projections are not expected until next week, but lawmakers are already considering how to cut $300 million or more from O'Malley's $15.2 billion general fund budget.

A Senate budget subcommittee voted to reduce stem-cell funding to $5 million from O'Malley's proposal of $23 million. Sen. Ulysses Currie, chairman of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, said the cut is the panel's initial effort to whittle state spending in anticipation of grim revenue forecasts next week.

Maryland Technology Development Corp., a quasi-governmental body known as TEDCO, distributes the stem-cell grants, and a budget analyst recently concluded that funds are being appropriated to the agency at a faster rate than necessary to keep up with the distribution of grants.

Currie said the remaining funding would be sufficient to continue awarding grants at the same rate as in the past.

"If you look at the research, what they were able to accomplish over the last two years, we left them enough to do that," Currie said. "We just spread it out."

Advocates said that if the money isn't restored in the final budget, the funding cut would devastate Maryland's fledgling stem-cell research effort. Many of the grants are paid out over two to three years, and $5 million would allow for only a fraction of the grants handed out in the past, advocates said.

"If they lower or stop the funding for one year, it's going to kill the program," said John Kellermann, president of Maryland Families for Stem Cell Research. He has Parkinson's disease.

Dr. Curt Civin, a cancer researcher with Johns Hopkins Medicine who received a three-year grant from the state for stem-cell research, said researchers need multiyear grants to gear up their laboratories and conduct studies. He said the funding cut would devastate stem-cell work just as "exciting things are happening."

"It's a wonderful time in science and a tragic time in science funding," he said. "We can't let this happen."

Maryland and other states have provided funding for stem-cell research in the past few years as a result of President Bush's 2001 decision to restrict federal funding. The appropriations have been a lightning rod for controversy. Opponents say the use of embryonic stem cells is morally wrong, and proponents say the funding could yield life-saving treatments for diseases including Parkinson's.

Nancy E. Paltell, an associate director of the Maryland Catholic Conference, applauded the budget cut. She said her organization would continue to lobby against all funding as long as part of the funding goes to embryonic studies.

O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said the governor remains committed to funding stem-cell research but recognizes the state's fiscal realities.

"How much we're able to do this year depends on the revenue estimates," Abbruzzese said. The governor will work with House and Senate leaders to make "appropriate adjustments in the budget" once the figures are released.

laura.smitherman@baltsun.com tim.wheeler@baltsun.com

Sun reporter Gadi Dechter contributed to this article.