Morris Arboretum hit hard by proposal

Could mean slashed programs The Morris Arboretum will have to slash its programs drastically if it does not receive the funding it requested from the state, officials said yesterday. Gov. Robert Casey ignored the arboretum's request for $400,000 in Wednesday's budget proposal -- an amount equalling almost twenty percent of its annual budget. "We can run, but it would cripple our operation," Arboretum Director Paul Meyer said yesterday. "The Arboretum will survive at some level . . . but to lose this kind of support it would affect its ability to be a world-class botanical garden." The University-managed Arboretum has recently been plagued by state-caused financial problems in addition to being left out of Wednesday's budget proposal. Last month, Casey froze $250,000 of the Arboretum's appropriation for this year as a precaution should the state not take in enough money to pay its bills. Meyer said the Arboretum is still trying to have this year's funding restored. The Arboretum's annual budget is $2 million, generated by a combination of grants, endowments, memberships and admissions fees. The Arboretum was also ignored in Casey's original budget proposal last February, before securing its $400,000 appropriation in the Pennsylvania state legislature's budget in August. "It is not rare for them not to be [included in the governor's proposal]," Executive Vice President Marna Whittington said yesterday, adding that the Arboretum usually receives its money from the legislature. Whittington added that the University has strong ties to the Arboretum which it has does not intend to abandon. "We have an obligation [to the Arboretum]," she said. But, "we all have to figure out a way to get through this." Casey's budget proposal, announced Wednesday, allocated no state funding to the University. The University, which received $37.6 million last year after heavy lobbying, asked for nearly $41.2 million in state funding.

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