Old article, but good...............NKU arena appears certain By Amanda York
Post Frankfort Bureau Chief
FRANKFORT -- A day that began with doubts ended with another hurdle cleared for Northern Kentucky University's long-sought special events center, which now appears almost certain to get state funding although how much is unsettled.
The Republican-controlled Senate passed its version of the state budget Monday night with funding for the NKU project. Senators voted 37-0 for the spending plan, which proposes $54 million for the arena, $12 million more than in the House proposal.
Senate President Pro Tem Katie Stine, R-Fort Thomas, said the increase is merited.
"For a region that does as much for the state as Northern Kentucky does, it is absolutely appropriate," she said.
The project, along with the rest of the state budget, next heads back to the House, where leaders will decide whether to agree with the Senate.
If they don't -- and that's likely -- then the budget and an accompanying tax plan that both chambers already have approved will go to a conference committee made up of leadership from the House and Senate to work out differences in the two versions.
The House appears inclined to scale back NKU's appropriation. Even one Northern Kentucky member questioned the logic of the extra money the Senate is proposing.
"This is just politics at its absolute worst," said Rep. Dennis Keene, D-Wilder. Keene said by asking for so much the region could be setting itself up to lose support among leaders in the House.
"Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered," said Keene. "I would love to see the $60 million, but it is not a reality. It is going to cause us to have a political problem with the rest of the state."
Northern Kentucky lawmakers first began working to secure funding for an arena at NKU in 1990. That year, $19 million for an arena was approved but then stripped from the plan after some members of the Northern Kentucky caucus voted against the Kentucky Education Reform Act.
In the latest push for the arena -- whose cost has been estimated at $53.5 million -- university officials said it would be used not only for school needs like ballgames and graduation, but also for community events such as concerts.
The extra funding for the project drew criticism from lawmakers from beyond the region, particularly from Louisville and Lexington, who saw the Senate cut proposed funding for major projects at each of their universities. Their attacks worried supporters of the NKU project before the vote -- but in the end, the funding held up.
In the Senate plan, a health science research center at the University of Louisville and a pharmaceutical research facility at the University of Kentucky were allocated $31 million and $32 million, respectively, in each case $8 million less than the House had proposed. The Senate budget also didn't include seed money to undertake national cancer research centers at both schools.
Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, D-Louisville, told members of the Senate budget committee that the chamber had misplaced its priorities by funding heavily the special events center at NKU and a development fund for horse breeders over research centers at UK and U of L.
"As crazy as we are about basketball and as much as we love thoroughbred racing and the Kentucky Derby, the people of Kentucky do not put a higher priority on basketball and horse racing then they do on a cancer facility," Shaughnessy said.
Lexington Democratic Sen. Ernesto Scorsone also said his preference would have been to put forth more money for the research facilities at UK and U of L.
The added funding would allow NKU to take fuller advantage of a recent gift from Bank of Kentucky, which has pledged to pay 10 percent -- or up to $6 million -- of construction costs for the center, said Joe Wind, executive director of government and community relations for the school.
The arena has strong support from Stine as well other influential Senate Republicans like Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, Majority Floor Leader Dan Kelly, R-Springfield, and Senate budget chair Charlie Borders, R-Russell. But there are no Northern Kentucky lawmakers in leadership in the House.
Borders told Senate colleagues the arena was justified as much for the economic impact as the fact that NKU students have to go across the Ohio River to U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati for graduation because there is no facility on the Highland Heights campus now large enough to house that program..
At least two members of House leadership are questioning the added funding for the NKU arena. House Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark, D-Louisville, said he couldn't understand why the Senate increased funding by $12 million.
And Majority Caucus Chair Bob Damron, D-Nicholasville, said he would not support an additional $12 million in funding for the arena after already approving $42 million for it: "We need to be focused on building academic facilities instead of building basketball arenas."
Sen. Jack Westwood, R-Crescent Springs, said characterizing the NKU project as a basketball arena or gymnasium is inaccurate.
"It is not a gymnasium," he told Senators earlier Monday. "It's easy to portray it as a gymnasium so that it takes on a less noble cause. It's a regional special events center."
www.kypost.com/2005/03/01/arena030105.html
