LINCOLN — The University of Nebraska is not backing down from its request that state government commit a full $50 million this year to building an ambitious cancer center on the NU Medical Center campus in Omaha, NU President J.B. Milliken said Friday.
Although private donors already have pledged a "significant" amount of money — Milliken declined to reveal how much — a state contribution would signal to other potential donors that the $370 million project will become a reality, he said. State funds also are needed up front to enable UNMC and Nebraska Medical Center officials to develop their financing plan, which includes borrowing $120 million.
"It's really important that the commitment be made in this (legislative) session," Milliken said during a meeting of the NU Board of Regents. "So many other things hinge upon it."
Gov. Dave Heineman, who wants the Legislature to pass a major tax cut this session, said it was bad timing when NU announced its four-part Building a Healthier Nebraska construction program this month.
The cancer research and treatment facility was the centerpiece of the $450 million proposal, which sought a total of $91 million from state cash reserves to get under way.
In addition to the money for the cancer center, the state is being asked to provide $36 million to build new nursing and health care education facilities in Lincoln and in Kearney and $5 million to start planning for a new veterinary diagnostic laboratory at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
"The university may have some good ideas about some future projects, but their request is very bad timing," Heineman said last week. "It would be fiscally imprudent to steal money out of the cash reserve."
Milliken did not say whether NU has a fallback plan for the cancer center project, should the state not commit the full $50 million this year. Building the center in phases is not an option, he said.
The Board of Regents voted 8-0 later Friday to endorse the multi-part construction initiative.
Academic officials also spoke in favor of the plan at Friday's regents meeting.
Juliann Sebastian, the med center nursing dean, emphasized the importance of building new nursing education facilities to address a growing shortage of nurses, particularly in rural areas.
UNK Chancellor Doug Kristensen enthusiastically touted the plan to expand health care training opportunities in Kearney as a "beachhead' that could make the city "Med Center West."
Ronnie Green, vice chancellor of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, described a new veterinary diagnostic lab as critical to the effectiveness and prestige of Nebraska's animal health programs.
UNMC Chancellor Harold Maurer and Nebraska Medical Center President Glenn Fosdick said they hope the proposed cancer center would be designated as a comprehensive treatment facility by the National Cancer Institute. That would put Nebraska in the same ranks with the likes of New York City's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic, they said.
The proposal calls for a 10-story cancer research tower and a 10-story outpatient treatment center, linked by an inpatient facility. The buildings would form a sort of quadrangle with the two Durham Research Center towers.
Under a timeline and cash-flow schedule laid out by Maurer and Fosdick, construction would begin in 2014 and the buildings would be completed in June 2016.
Estimated expenditures for the 2012-13 fiscal year would be about $23 million for planning and design work. The bulk of construction costs would come in 2014-15 and 2015-16.
Even though the full $50 million won't be spent immediately, Milliken said, the financial plan is incumbent upon an early commitment from the state.
He compared the project to an opportunity presented by the Nebraska Innovation Campus last year. The state's decision to allocate $25 million for that project resulted in development plans that exceed $80 million, with investors and donors putting up the additional funds, Milliken said. The state would get even more bang for its buck with the cancer center, Milliken argued.
Legislative Speaker Mike Flood started Friday's meeting by warning regents that the Legislature won't act on the spending proposals until lawmakers have a better sense of the stability of state revenues.
"For the first time in four years, we have more projected revenues than we have projected expenses," he said. "That's quite a change."
But that means people have plenty of ideas on how to best use revenues, Flood added. Those ideas include the governor's tax-cut plan and a wide array of economic development proposals.
"We have more sales tax (exemptions) and economic development incentives proposed this year than in any of the eight years I've been in the Legislature," he said.
Flood said "the reality is" lawmakers won't make any decisions until after a revenue forecasting board updates its projections for tax receipts in late February. That forecast will give lawmakers a better sense of the state's bottom line.
"That's going to set the boundaries," he said, adding that "at the end of the day, every legislator wants to leave Lincoln (at the end of the session) feeling that we took a step forward and that Nebraska will be a better place in 20 years because of what we did this year."
Regent Howard Hawks, an Omaha businessman and NU donor, urged Flood and other lawmakers to be cautious about cutting taxes.
"We need to balance (tax cuts with) the things we need to do, that we haven't had the money for," Hawks said. "I'm concerned that in a time of great need and great opportunity that we don't overreach with that tax cut."
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