South Carolina’s program to attract world-class university researchers is doing better than Gov. Mark Sanford indicated when he proposed trimming funding by $10 million.

Program and university officials said the Governor’s Office doesn’t understand the endowed chair process. They said the proposed cuts would hurt efforts to recruit research faculty.

Sanford’s office disagrees, however, and stands by its claim that the program has excess capacity.

The governor’s executive budget calls for cutting state lottery funding for the university endowed chairs program from $30 million to $20 million in fiscal 2005-06. The program has received $30 million in each of the past three years.

The S.C. Research Centers of Economic Excellence targets endowed professorships at USC, MUSC and Clemson in areas that will lead to improving the state’s economy. To get the lottery money, the universities must raise matching funds on a dollar-for-dollar basis.

The idea is that the professors develop knowledge with the potential to create new products and services. Businesses and jobs spring up around those goods and services. It is a long-term investment that is being used in other states.

Will Folks, Sanford’s spokesman, said the problem is the difficulty of obtaining matching funding.

“At this point, all required matching dollars have not been drawn down at the university level,” according to the governor’s proposed budget. Of the $90 million budgeted in the past three years, $72.5 million has been awarded, but only $17 million has been distributed, the budget states.

“We believe that a $20 million appropriation in lottery funds is more that sufficient for this coming year,” Folks said.

Folks said the governor is also concerned that lottery revenues aren’t going to continue to be as high as they have been.

Sanford’s proposal isn’t likely to get much traction in the Legislature. Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he would urge lawmakers to fully fund the endowed chairs program.

“It would be a mistake to cut it,” Harrell said. The program is about the future and creating the kinds of businesses and jobs that South Carolina needs, he said.

Officials with the program say the governor is using old numbers and not giving the entire picture on the matching funds.

According to the Commission of Higher Education, which administers the program, the research universities have pledges of $49.2 million toward the $72.5 million in awards. They have received $30 million on those pledges so far.

“They have got pledges for two-thirds of what they have been awarded, and that is pretty impressive,” said Gail Morrison, the commission’s deputy executive director.

Under the program’s guidelines, a university has 18 months to obtain pledges to match an award, Morrison said.

Once a pledge has been made, the university has five years to get the money.

“Nobody has missed a pledge period, although we do have some deadlines coming up,” Morrison said.

Of the nine awards made in the first year of the endowed chairs program, seven have been matched, said Donald Tetreault, program manager for academic affairs. Of the next eight awards, which were made about six months ago, two have been matched, he said.

“At this point, to conclude that these institutions aren’t taking any action is pretty premature,” Tetreault said.

Morrison said awards have been made for the first two years of the program. A review of proposals for the third year is under way.

“We haven’t made those awards; clearly we will be awarding all of the $90 million,” she said.

The universities have submitted proposals totaling $60.5 million for year three, she said.

The universities have drawn $19.5 million in lottery funds from the program so far, not $17 million as the governor asserted. Money can be drawn down in amounts of $500,000 once that amount of matching cash is received.

The process of hiring a world-class researcher can take time. Only two professors, nanoscientists Richard Webb at USC and cancer drug researcher Kenneth Tew at MUSC, have been hired under the program.

It can take two years from the time an application for an endowed chair is made to the time a professor in place, said Tony Boccanfuso, USC director of research and economic development. That assumes the university is able to secure matching funds immediately or find another way to fund the professor on an interim basis.

Once the lottery funds are drawn down by the university, it is another 12 months before interest on that money is available to fund the program.

Boccanfuso said the Governor’s Office doesn’t understand the process.

A similar program was started at the University of Kentucky in 1998. Five years later, the Kentucky program has 67 endowed chairs; 42 have been awarded.

The S.C. program is creating a lot of buzz in academic circles, Boccanfuso said, boosting USC’s image. Trimming the program would send a terrible message, he said.

Ed McMullen, chairman of the S.C. Research Centers of Economic Excellence Review Board, doesn’t fault the governor for making the proposal.

“Based on the information they were using, they probably made a reasonable decision,” McMullen said. But more current information indicates the program “is an important thing to keep moving forward,” he said.