BY PAUL BARTON
Enquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Federal arts funding for Hamilton County has taken a major hit with Republicans in control of Congress, while medical research has prospered.
Those are two trends that stand out in a computer-assisted review of federal funding received by Hamilton County from 1995-1997. Overall, the county received $5.24 billion in federal spending for federal budget year 1997, an increase of 2 percent since 1995. Federal funding for promotion of the arts and humanities in Hamilton County has decreased 65 percent over that time, going from $1.81 million in 1995 to $637,170 in 1997.
The decrease reflects budget cuts that Republicans have imposed on the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
"Our budget was cut dramatically during that time frame. That means we have less to give to any particular state or area," said NEA spokeswoman Katherine Wood.
Republicans, including Rep. Steve Chabot of Cincinnati, have attacked the NEA, calling it a waste of taxpayers' money.
Mr. Chabot, in fact, has joined with taxpayer groups in supporting elimination of the NEA and the NEH. He offered an amendment last year to eliminate the latter.
"Steve has argued for the last four years it is not a fair system. Bureaucrats are using tax dollars from Cincinnati families to fund government-certified art in New York," said Chabot spokesman Gary Lindgren.
Most of the NEA budget, Mr. Chabot contends, is used on administrative costs or to fund art projects in major markets such as New York, Boston, Washington, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
But Ohio supporters of federal arts funding say the Republicans are wrong in much of what they contend about the NEA.
"A lot of the criticism is really old news," said Beth Fisher of the Ohio Arts Council. "They are not the same agency anymore." The agency now caps the grant amounts that can go to any one area. "That really addresses the issue that too much money can go to any one state," Ms. Fisher said.
But while arts funding has declined, the story has been different for medical research.
The computer analysis showed federal dollars clearly identified as cancer research grants for Hamilton County totaled $2.21 million, an increase of 46 percent since 1995.
Other dollars labeled "research" totaled $61.5 million for 1997, an increase of 6 percent. University of Cincinnati Medical Center officials said the figures continue to increase.
For their 1998 budget year, they said, their research dollars totaled $110 million -- about 85 percent of which was federal.
Official Census Bureau figures for 1998 spending will not be out for many months because the federal budget year doesn't end until Sept. 30.
"We rely a lot on federal support," said Donald C. Harrison, senior vice president at the medical center.
Members of the Cincinnati area delegation, as well as Rep. John Kasich of Westerville, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, strongly support biomedical research, Mr. Harrison said.
"That's one of the areas where they have a major focus on increasing funding," he said.
By far the largest source of federal spending in Hamilton County relates to government procurement contracts, which totaled $1.40 billion in 1997.
Nearly a third of the 364 pages that the General Services Administration uses to list Hamilton County-related federal contracts tracts are taken up by various projects related to GE Aircraft Engines in Evendale.
