Energy Crisis Puts Proposed Fresno Hospital in Jeopardy
State legislators' concern about the energy crisis has threatened funding for a proposed $30 million teaching hospital and library for Fresno-based medical residents affiliated with the University of California-San Francisco, the Fresno Bee reports. Gov. Gray Davis (D) allocated the funds in his proposed budget, but the Senate Budget Committee, citing the energy crisis' "drain" on the state's surplus, then "scrapped" plans for the new facility, along with more than $2 billion for "other one-time spending projects." This week, Sen. Jim Costa (D-Fresno) and Assembly member Sarah Reyes (D-Fresno) lobbied their colleagues to restore the funding, with Costa noting that the UCSF program "has produced more than 1,600 doctors in its two decades in Fresno -- half of whom have stayed to practice in the physician-starved San Joaquin Valley." The Bee reports that two legislative committees are considering a restoration, but will not take any action until Davis releases his revised budget next month. More than $1 million has already been spent on designing the new facility, which would train about 175 residents a year (Maxwell, Fresno Bee, 4/27).
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