This year, LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center requested $16 million in total funding in the Preliminary Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2014-2015 appropriations approved by the Board of Supervisors.
Although the budget is subject to change, the preliminary request for the upcoming 2014-15 fiscal year shows about $9 million in state appropriations. The remaining funding would come from additional sources like self-generated funds.
Additionally, Pennington has requested funding for development toward the Biomedical Imaging and Bioinformatics Program and Clinical and Translational Science Expansion/Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Diseases program for 2014-15.
The state appropriations will go toward funding a new base for Pennington, and filling the reduced amount will go toward filling monetary holes in the system, according to Steven Heymsfield, chair in nutrition at Pennington.
Heymsfield said Pennington was given about $18 million in state appropriations in 2008, and several years of cuts have followed.
“That hole is so big, it’s going to be hard to fill,” Heymsfield said.
Pennington, LSU Health Care Services Division and the LSU System Office create a budget separate from the campuses in the system.
In last year’s operating budget, Pennington was granted about $7 million in state appropriations, and the other half came from other sources like statutory dedications and self-generated funds. Its total budget was about $14 million.
Barbara Goodson, deputy commissioner for finance and administration, said the Louisiana Board of Regents created the preliminary budget request numbers by evaluating the finances through a cost calculator.
“What was a logical number we could all stand behind,” Goodson said the committee asked themselves when coming up with the budget.
Last year, The Daily Reveille reported that Pennington was looking to start a four-year medical school with a research focus and the center received tentative support from the Board of Supervisors.
Heymsfield said the extra money is not for the development of a medical school but to maintain research and faculty funding.
Ernie Ballard, University media relations, said in an email the amount Pennington received is similar to last year’s appropriation, just from different sources.
“That hole is so big, it’s going to be hard to fill.”