Editorial: Where is the money Prop. 71 promised?

It’s a sad day for the science community ““
especially in California ““ when it has to rely on black-tie
dinners to raise money for stem cell research.

And yet, come May 22, that’s more or less what could be
happening. That night, supporters of the California Stem Cell
Institute, which was founded by the voter-approved Proposition 71,
plan to host a fundraiser featuring such illustrious dinner guests
as Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sen. Barbara Boxer and San Francisco
Mayor Gavin Newsom. Tickets will run as high as $10,000 a head, and
organizers hope to raise about $1 million that would go to the
institute.

Though the thought of dinner doesn’t usually make us
angry, this one is particularly pathetic because the institute
shouldn’t have to rely on private donors for funds in the
first place.

In fact, it should be swimming in a sizeable chunk of the $3
billion California voters decided to give it over the course of 10
years. That money, in turn, would be doled out to universities and
nonprofit institutions to fund stem cell research.

But as of now, no one has seen a penny, and court cases blocking
the funds have impeded progress in stem cell research.

Research in this area is extremely valuable, as stem cells can
be used as a repair system for the body by becoming any other type
of cells ““ red blood cells, brain cells, muscle cells.

It is this characteristic that makes them the only potential
cure for a variety of blood and neurological diseases, such as
Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and different types of
cancers.

Instead, the institute has been forced to subsist on $3 million
in state funding and about $5 million in private gifts. More
recently, it has also received $14 million in loans from six
private organizations.

And instead of doling out the $350 million in annual grants the
institute was expected to give out, it released only $12.1 million
on Monday, its first grants to date.

UCLA received the most ““ about $1.2 million ““ of any
other institution, and will use the money to train 16 scientists.
Researchers said they were thankful for the money, even though it
was a far cry from what they were projected to receive.

Why the discrepancy in money? Because virtually all of the $3
billion that was supposed to come through with Proposition 71 has
been relegated to legal purgatory.

Opponents of the institute ““ and probably more than a few
opponents of stem cell research ““ have successfully clogged
up the funding process by suing the state, claiming that it is
illegal for an agency outside of state control to distribute
taxpayer funds.

Lawyers for the agency argue that there is state oversight of
the institute and that the plaintiffs’ arguments are invalid,
a point with which an Alameda County Superior Court judge largely
agreed.

Regardless of the dubious basis for the case, it is still
projected to make its rounds in the courts by 2007.

So a proposition that was passed by 59 percent of California
voters to keep the state on the front line of stem cell research
has been made obsolete by a small group who don’t agree with
its ideological implications.

What makes this situation even more tragic is the fact that
those opposed to this research are winning by merely holding up the
funding.

The plaintiffs are essentially circumventing the democratic
process by undermining California voters. That’s a problem
that no amount of black-tie dinners will solve.