Earmarks are a hot topic in the news after many politicians railed against congressionally directed funds and ultimately placed a moratorium on them, but at Mississippi State University, they are more than a topic for political fodder.
Whit Waide, political science instructor, acknowledges there are occasional wastes in earmarks, like one for a toilet museum, but recognizes their importance to places like MSU.
“I think State as we know it wouldn’t exist without earmarks,” Waide said.
MSU has long been a beneficiary of congressionally directed funds thanks to high-ranking congressmen like republican Sen. Thad Cochran, who is the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
A significant portion of earmark funding is distributed to MSU for specific research projects, which is one of the reasons MSU was recently named a “very high research activity university” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. MSU Vice President for Research and Economic Development David Shaw said with earmarks being slashed, MSU officials are seeking more competitive funds, which are allocated by government agencies.
However, those funds are also being cut, which both Shaw and MSU President Mark Keenum have called a “double whammy.” The loss of research funding could reduce the number of graduate assistantships available to graduate students.
“We’ve been working really hard to use the congressional initiatives that we’ve had to be able to build expertise and build capacity to be more competitive, and I think we’ve been successful in a lot of different ways in that regard,” Shaw said.
Keenum addressed budget concerns at the Feb. 11 Faculty Senate meeting, and although he said he was pleased Gov. Haley Barbour proposed a state-funding cut of only 3.6 percent, the potential loss of $48 million in earmark funds has the president worried.
Shaw said the earmark bans placed by the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate will have an impact on MSU, but the level of impact is completely undetermined at this time.
The other Mississippi public universities are also major beneficiaries of congressionally directed funds. In fiscal year 2010, Cochran sponsored or co-sponsored earmarks that sent $32.5 million to Starkville, $31.4 million to Hattiesburg and $17 million to Oxford, according to data from opensecrets.org.
Cochran has been criticized for funneling money to Mississippi by groups opposed to earmarks. Because he has over 30 years of experience in the Senate and has a high-ranking position on the Appropriations Committee, Cochran is able to consistently rank in the top three in number of earmarks passed.
Marty Wiseman, director of the Stennis Institute of Government at MSU, said earmarks usually go to “less well-to-do” states like Mississippi, Kentucky and West Virginia. In many cases, they are smaller projects in rural areas and not larger ventures like a bridge over the Mississippi River.
“Those who cheer in Mississippi for the loss of earmarks are cheering for their own throat to be cut,” he said.
Although Cochran’s current term runs through 2014, it is unknown if the 74-year-old will run for another term or how long he will maintain his status on the Appropriations Committee.
If earmarks are banned in Cochran’s final years in office, the state would miss out on one of the advantages of having a senator as high-ranking as Cochran, a position some states wait decades for.
Fortunately for MSU, Keenum is no stranger to securing funding from Washington, D.C. Keenum worked on Cochran’s staff from 1989 to 2006 before serving as Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2006 to 2008.
“I would pit our president against any in the nation in the ability to understand what’s happening and to be able to position the university in the very best ways that it can be,” Shaw said.
Navigating an economic climate with no earmark funds, and a Cochran-less Senate down the road, will be a significant challenge for MSU. However, Wiseman said Keenum knows where the alternative sources of funding can be found at the federal level.
“We couldn’t be more fortunate at this juncture in the life of our university to have someone who is so keenly aware,” Wiseman said.
Wiseman said the progress MSU has made using earmark funds, like the recent accolade from the Carnegie Foundation, will put MSU in a better position than other universities who rely heavily on earmarks. MSU officials hope the research that has been done will entice government agencies to bring research dollars to Starkville on their own merit.
“We’ve been working very closely to develop partnerships with the agencies so that they see us as a good partner and choose to fund us rather than being told to fund us,” Shaw said.
Both Waide and Wiseman said they agree money cut from earmarks will continue to be spent through the budget process, so the politically popular tactic of cutting earmarks will do little to solve the on going budget crises.
Whereas some states will see little change from the loss of earmarks, at MSU and in the state of Mississippi, the issue is not a small matter.