Perry pushes cancer research fund

Remember Rick Perry's grand plan to fund cancer research? It's now one step closer to reality.

With the ambitious goal of finding a cancer cure, lawmakers filed legislation Wednesday that would invest up to $300 million a year to fund a wide range of cancer research initiatives in Texas.

Gov. Rick Perry, joined by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, called the proposal a "landmark investment in a collaborative research effort that can put Texas on the leading edge of developing new therapies for cancer treatment."

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Texas voters would have to approve a November ballot measure that would allow the state to borrow against bonds to fund the Cancer Research Institute of Texas. In his budget proposal, Perry had proposed using proceeds from selling the state lottery to a private company.

Yes, that is a departure from the State of the State speech, in which the sell-off of the Lottery was supposed to provide everflowing funds for education, cancer research, and for all I know ponies, too. Is this the end of that harebrained idea? I hope so. And unlike the expanded gambling proposal, I'd have no problems voting Yes for this.

The bill sponsors are Sen. Jane Nelson and Rep. Jim Keffer. For what it's worth, Keffer is not a sponsor of Rep. Beverly Woolley's stem cell bill. I don't know where he and Sen. Nelson stand on this issue, but I hope their commitment to science and to really put Texas "on the leading edge" carries over to that effort as well.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on March 09, 2007 to That's our Lege