Kansas Bioscience Authority nearing the end?

The Legislature and Gov. Sam Brownback have been slowly starving the Kansas Bioscience Authority of funding, so it was not a shock when the KBA announced this week that it had laid off half of its full-time staff and was holding off on making new investments.

It can hang on only so long.

The Legislature created the authority in 2004 with the goal of recruiting and incubating bioscience companies to help diversify and grow the economy. Its results over the past decade have been mixed.

The high point was the federal government’s decision to locate the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan. The authority also has helped connect research done at the state’s universities, including Wichita State University, with the private sector. The low point was a 2012 audit reporting that the KBA’s former president, Tom Thornton, had misspent funds and destroyed documents.

The statute that created the KBA allows it to receive $35 million a year in funding. But from fiscal years 2012 through 2015, it received less than $29 million total. And this fiscal year’s funding remains uncertain, as Brownback still needs to make about $50 million in budget cuts.

Late this past legislative session, a Senate bill surfaced (but didn’t advance) that would have enabled the Kansas Department of Commerce to absorb the KBA’s assets and investment portfolio. Duane Cantrell, the KBA’s president and CEO, said that a state senator told him at the time, “You can choose a fast death or a slow death.”

Either way, the KBA’s brief life may be nearing the end.

For the editorial board, Phillip Brownlee

This story was originally published July 23, 2015 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Kansas Bioscience Authority nearing the end?."