ALBANY — State lawmakers are pushing to return up to $8.5 million from speeding-ticket fines to a spinal-cord research fund that had been raided since 2010 to balance the state’s budget.
The Senate’s 2013-14 budget proposal mandates that the entire amount be put back into the Spinal Cord Injury Research Trust Fund, said Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn).
The Assembly, however, is proposing that only $2 million be sent back to the fund. A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) said the fund underwrites “very promising projects associated with spinal-cord injury research.”