Fiterman Hall would have seemed to be one of the least challenging rebuilding projects around ground zero. But it has slowly  very slowly  proved to be one of the more intransigent.

The physical scope is straightforward enough. First, decontaminate and demolish Fiterman, a 15-story building on West Broadway that was used by the Borough of Manhattan Community College, a unit of the City University of New York, before being badly damaged on Sept. 11. Then, replace it. Neither the purpose nor the scale of the building would change significantly. Even the name would stay the same.

But the future of the project is hung up on money  specifically, how much financing is or is not due from New York City.

The Bloomberg administration says it has committed $80 million. University officials and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, however, said the city has committed only $20 million. That is a big discrepancy and more than an accounting exercise. The state’s Dormitory Authority, which would build the new Fiterman Hall for the City University, cannot issue a construction contract without a consensus between the university and the city on a budget and financing, said Marc Violette, press officer for the authority.