DETROIT ? Negotiations are underway in the Michigan legislature to restore the nearly $30 million in Michigan Tri-Corridor Funding eliminated last week by the legislature, Michigan Sen. Valde Garcia (R-Howell) said Thursday at the MichBio Expo.
Garcia, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Commerce, Labor and Economic Development, said he expects the funds to come from the $1 billion Tobacco Securitization deal approved Wednesday by the Michigan House, which is now in conference committee. He said he expects the money to be restore by the end of October.
?We?ll have a significant amount of money for several years for life sciences,?? Garcia said. ?We?ll have the life sciences fund restored by the end of October.?
When the 2006 budget bill was approved last week by conference committee, it contained no Tri-Corridor Funding. In fiscal 2005, the Michigan Tri-Corridor gave out $27.3 million in life-sciences funding to 24 companies and institutions.
Negotiations are in the final stages between House and Senate on a new plan that would replace the Tri-Corridor?s annually appropriated allotment with a new moneys from the securitization deal, which still has not been signed off on by the Senate or approved by the governor.
The plan approved by the House would create a pool of $1 billion to provide research grants, seed funding for venture-capital firms and loan guarantees for growing businesses, sources said.
