Weather center funding secured

Cheyenne Hopkins - Daily Staff Writer

032502

OU can begin plans to build the Weather Center within the next year since securing state funding for the project.

Gov. Frank Keating signed a bill Tuesday that will give the OU Weather Center and Oklahoma State University $38 million of state funding from the Corporation Commission's fund to clean up underground storage tanks. The Oklahoma House of Representatives approved the bill the same day. The Senate approved it March 14.

"Passage of the bill by both the House and the Senate is a victory for our entire state and not just for the University of Oklahoma," OU President David Boren said. "It moves us closer to the day when our outstanding young people will not have to leave the state to find jobs."

The center will house five federal organizations, including the OU School of Meteorology, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the National Severe Storms Laboratory Storm Prediction Center and the Norman Weather Forecast Office. It will be the largest of its kind in the world.

Boren said the center will also help Oklahoma's economy.

"Several years from now we will look back on the funding of the National Weather Center as a major breakthrough in the state's economy," Boren said. "It moves our state toward an economy based upon intellectual property and higher per capita incomes."

The OSU Sensor Sensors and Sensor Technology will specialize in research for the detection of bioterrorist weapons.

The revenue will be provided through the Petroleum Storage Tank Indemnity Fund, created in 1989 to clean up pollution caused by leaking underground fuel storage tanks. The fund receives its money from a one-cent per gallon fuel tax.

The bill would share the fund with the two university projects until about 2006. The bill created the Higher Education Facilities Revolving Fund to divert the $38 million to the centers. The fund will have two accounts of $19 million each for the universities.

For two years, half of the penny tax will be divided between the centers, giving the projects $12 million. A quarter of the tax will be divided every subsequent year until the $38 million total is reached. Sen. Cal Hobson, D-Lexington, author of the bill, said goal should be reached by 2006.

The fund currently has $19 million; all but about $2 million of that has already been contracted for projects. About $24 to $26 million comes into the fund a year. By July, when the fund begins sharing with the university centers, $6 million will be generated into it.

The bill passed the Senate unanimously with a vote of 47-0.

"On the floor that day, it was one of the proudest moments I had in the Senate," Hobson said.

The House had a tougher battle. The House passed the bill 54-44. All Norman representatives supported the bill.

The opposition was not against the centers but against this path of funding them. Some representatives argued that the bill would use the storage fund's money for something it was not intended. The Corporation Commission has spoken out in opposition to this path of funding for fear that diverting money from the source would harm the environment.

John Cox, Keating's press secretary, said Keating would not have signed the bill if it harmed the environment. The issue came down to the long term, he said. There are not urgencies in the environment for the indemnity fund and the centers will help Oklahoma in the long run.

"This legislation will pay enormous long term benefits to the state of Oklahoma," Keating said. "Establishing these facilities at our two comprehensive universities will enable Oklahoma to establish itself as the premier center in the United States for weather and bioterrorism related research.

"These projects will provide students with an educational environment second to none and will have a tremendous impact on both the public and private sector."

Hobson, an author of the bill creating the indemnity fund, said he knows what the fund was created for, but that the university projects are more immediately important in moving Oklahoma forward.

Hobson said securing the funding was difficult because of the state's tight budget revenue year and many projects were targeting the rainy day fund, Hobson said.

The bill also extends the indemnity fund from 2009 to 2012.

Boren said the extension will provide the fund additional money.

"In addition to funding the two important projects, the bill will also provide an additional $40 million for environmental cleanup efforts in our state over the amount provided by current law," Boren said.

The state funding will be used as a match for most of the federal funding. Of the federal funding, $31.2 million has already been secured and $7 million from the state government.
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