By Richard Locker - The Commercial Appeal -

NASHVILLE -- Two Memphis institutions won't be getting a total of $9 million in state funding they hoped for this year because federal money that it was contingent upon is less than expected.

The National Civil Rights Museum won't be getting $5 million in additional state aid toward its $20 million-$25 million renovation and exhibit upgrade project.

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center won't receive $4 million for the demolition of four abandoned buildings on its Memphis campus and site preparation for newer structures.

UT Interim President Jan Simek said the demolition projects on the Memphis campus "may have to wait until we can find the resources to do it. That's a decision the (UTHSC) chancellor has to make about how he's going to allocate resources.

"But this is a problem we have with construction across the system -- that resources are very scarce at this point."

Civil rights museum executives did not return calls Friday, but on Monday they told Shelby County's state legislators the major renovation and redesign of the museum likely won't start until after September 2011 to avoid interruptions during its 20th anniversary that month. As a result, it's unclear what impact the absence of the $5 million in state aid will have.

The state grant would have gone toward the $20 million-plus project, for which the museum is raising money.

The National Endowment for the Humanities announced a $750,000 grant last week, but the museum must raise money privately to match it on a 3-to-1 basis, and that money is for a museum endowment rather than for the construction project.

The $9 million that won't be coming to Memphis is part of $132 million in contingency funding the state legislature included in the state budget for the fiscal year that started July 1 that budget officials say won't occur because the additional federal money it was contingent upon isn't coming from Washington.

When the 2010-11 state budget was being prepared this spring, Congress debated an extension of the enhanced federal share of funding for state Medicaid programs that would have meant Tennessee could divert $342 million of state dollars from TennCare into other projects.

But when Congress later approved the extension, the savings for Tennessee totaled $210 million, leaving $132 million of the contingency appropriations unfunded.

State legislators prioritized the 13 contingency projects in the budget they passed in June, to whatever level of federal funding eventually materialized. The state budget office says the first seven projects will be funded but the bottom six won't -- unless lawmakers reappropriate them next year.

The higher-priority projects that will proceed include $84 million in new construction at Tennessee's community colleges and $36 million at the state's technology centers. Those campuses are expected to see big enrollment increases under an overhaul of the higher education system lawmakers approved in January.

Also funded are a new driver's license issuance system at $30 million, $10 million in grants to critical-access hospitals, $10 million in small-business job development grants, and $9.6 million in infrastructure at the West Tennessee industrial development "megasite" in southwest Haywood County.

A planned $90 million new statewide communications system for the Tennessee Highway Patrol will get $30 million this year, delaying $60 million of the project.

In addition to the two Memphis projects, unfunded projects and programs include $51 million in additional economic development incentives, an extra $10 million in agricultural enhancement program grants (which help farmers pay for farm implements and equipment), and $2 million in grants to upgrade local sewer systems.