Ballot initiative hopes to boost funding for brain research

A ballot initiative could open the door to Montana spending $200 million to fund research on brain diseases or illnesses like Alzheimer’s and post-traumatic stress disorder. While critics say the act is well-intentioned, they contend it usurps the current system to determine state spending and creates a debt taxpayers would carry.

Initiative 181 would create a Montana Biomedical Research Authority that could request up to $20 million annually for 10 years toward research of brain injuries, diseases or illnesses.

The authority would include an independent panel of health-care workers, patient advocacy groups, veterans and Montana Indian tribes. The cohort would oversee awarding grants to state universities, hospitals and research facilities. Private pharmaceutical companies could also benefit from the grants if they pair with a state research nonprofit.

Montanans for Research and Cures is the group behind the initiative. Group chairman Randy Gray said the act was designed to be flexible. Montana-based biomedical research organizations could apply for the grants to recruit new scientists, purchase better technology and to expand therapy development.

“We’re talking about creating hope for the tens of thousands of Montanans facing things like post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction, Alzheimer’s, brain cancers,” Gray said. “These are issues that every Montanan has been affected by.”

Gray also chairs the Great Falls-based McLaughlin Research Institute of Biomedical Research, one of the institutions he said that hopes to benefit from the initiative. He said while cases of brain illnesses are predicted to grow, the National Institute of Health (NIH) funding research institutions rely on continues to wither.

From 2003 to 2015, NIH lost 22 percent of its research funds due to budget cuts. In 2015, Congress increased the NIH budget by 5.9 percent, but that still fell short if its 2012 budget.

“That’s fewer grants for everyone and fewer advancements in understanding health issues on the rise,” Gray said. “Montana could hold its own in this venture — we’re already doing some of this work … but we’re not going to get anywhere without supporting research.”

THE PLAN relies on state general-obligation bonds, meaning local governments pledge to repay bond holders using resources like tax revenues. But those bonds are also how the state pays for public projects such as infrastructure.

Critics have said if $200 million is committed to brain research over the next decade, it complicates funding for backlogged public needs and unpredictable state expenses.

Those opposed to I-181 include a bipartisan group of state senators and representatives, the Montana AFL-CIO and the Montana Taxpayer Association.

Al Ekblad, the executive secretary with the state AFL-CIO, said I-181 could hurt the 2017 Montana Legislature’s ability to invest in road, water and sewer projects. And leaving infrastructure behind would harm jobs by stalling construction work around the state, he said.

But Ekblad said the issue is more complicated than that. He said I-181 would give voters an unprecedented ability to determine state spending.

“I-181 sets a dangerous precedent of directing spending through the initiative process that could be abused by out-of-state special interests in the future,” he said.

When I-181 qualified for the November ballot with roughly 39,000 signatures, the Montana Taxpayers Association filed a lawsuit asking the Montana Supreme Court to block the initiative. The association argued that I-181 violated the Montana Constitution by giving public money to private organizations.

The high court rejected the petition, saying that a constitutional challenge to a ballot initiative can’t bypass the lower courts.

SARA WALSH, a Kalispell resident and one of the creators behind the proposal, said the price Montanans pay to care for people with brain injuries, diseases or illnesses outweighs the expense tied to the initiative. She said for example, the state’s Medicaid cost for caring for people with Alzheimer’s in 2016 is predicted to reach $150 million in 2016 — that’s according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

“What I think opponents don’t understand is that this doesn’t have to be a one or the other situation,” Walsh said, adding that the bonding is a small portion of the state’s general fund.

She also said if voters pass the initiative, it will have to go to the Montana Legislature for approval and possible amendments.

“Like a lot of people you pass on the street, I have at least six family members in my immediate family that could have been impacted by the research 181 would foster, like Parkinson’s, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s,” Walsh said. “We can do something about it right here in Montana.”

Gray with Montanans for Research and Cures has lived with multiple sclerosis for 25 years, a chronic and often progressive disease where sheaths of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. He’s spent nearly the same amount of time promoting medical research toward similar diseases. He’s even acted as a guinea pig for it through clinical trials — trials he hopes to see expand in Montana.

“It’s not like I want to live 500 years, but it’s so important, on a state level, a national and international level, to understand these illnesses,” Gray said. “We could see an explosion of understanding and treatment opportunities in our state, so this isn’t something families still have to face generations from now.”

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.