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Astronaut Karen Nyberg talks with NASA Glenn Research Center staff in March about her recent space flight on the International Space Station using Glenn research equipment. NASA Glenn's budget is again on the line, writes Brent Larkin.

(Chuck Crow, The Plain Dealer)

There's not much downside to Cleveland landing the Republican National Convention and LeBron James' return to the Cavaliers.

Both will ring the cash register for the entire Northeast Ohio economy. And both are an undeniable plus for the city’s image.

But given that Cleveland is unaccustomed to an avalanche of good news, it’s important the cheerleaders don’t lose perspective.

As good as these two things are for the local economy, there’s a 350-acre patch of land adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport that is so much more important to Northeast Ohio than a political convention or a 29-year-old basketball player that it’s probably an insult to mention the three of them in the same sentence.

That land is home to NASA Glenn Research Center, arguably Greater Cleveland’s most important economic asset -- an asset where officials there are once again deeply worried about the prospect of pending federal budget cuts.

A congressional decision on NASA Glenn’s fiscal 2015 budget isn’t expected until after the November election (its fiscal year technically begins Oct. 1). But it’s not too early to worry, as a big cut in the research center’s funding would be nothing short of devastating.

The prospect of Congress taking an ax to NASA Glenn’s budget has been an ongoing concern here for nearly 20 years. It hasn’t happened yet. Instead, a year-by-year look at the center’s funding finds what resembles a death-by-a-thousand-cuts strategy.

NASA Glenn today is home to 1,626 employees, down from more than 2,200 in 1997. There are also 1,511 employees at NASA who work for private contractors. Its workforce is among the best-educated on the planet. Two thirds of NASA’s 1,108 scientists and engineers have advanced degrees. Twenty five percent are Ph.Ds.

A Cleveland State University study determined that in fiscal year 2012, NASA Glenn had a $1.2 billion impact on the Northeast Ohio economy, generating $83 million in taxes.

Whereas NASA Glenn generates those breathtaking dollar amounts every 12 months, the one-time impact of the Republican National Convention will be about $400 million. James should be worth about $50 million annually to the Northeast Ohio economy for the five years or so he remains a superstar.

NASA’s Cleveland center is the space agency’s primary driver of research, technology and systems designed to advance not only space exploration, but also aviation.

Cleveland native James Free, the 45-year-old NASA Glenn director, said when scientists from the center attend international conferences, “They’re treated like rock stars.”

Indeed, since 1966, NASA Glenn has won more research and development awards than all other NASA centers combined. During a recent, two-hour tour of the NASA complex, a small group of us were blown away by the wondrous work that goes on there. And not all of that work is about space travel.

Cutting edge, NASA Glenn research improves and saves lives in literally dozens of meaningful ways. A few of those ways include research on jet engine icing designed to prevent passenger planes from falling from the sky, huge advances in new medical devices that save lives, and increased automobile fuel economy.

NASA Glenn’s problem has always had more to do with politics than performance. Members of Congress from the deep South, mostly senators, have succeeded in climbing the ladders of power on congressional committees that control NASA’s programs and purse strings.

For decades, that southern strategy has forced Ohio’s senators and Northeast Ohio members of Congress to fight a strategy designed to minimize NASA Glenn’s losses. While NASA space centers in the South have expanded, NASA Glenn’s influence has waned.

For NASA’s fiscal year 2014, which ends Sept. 30, the Obama administration had proposed $684 million for NASA Glenn. Congress cut that funding to $567 million.

Officials at NASA Glenn and the Greater Cleveland Partnership have been lobbying for months to preserve the Obama administration's proposed $587 million in funding for 2015.

“NASA Glenn has been a very high-priority item for us for a long time, but for some it’s not on the radar screen like it is in places like Alabama, Florida and Texas,” said GCP head Joe Roman. “Our federal delegation doesn’t sit on the key committees like they do in those states. And the general public here doesn’t live and breathe NASA like local communities in the South.”

Brook Park Mayor Tom Coyne thinks now might be a good time to start. Coyne has been one of NASA’s biggest boosters for decades. And in one of biggest steals since the Louisiana Purchase, in 2001 he negotiated a deal with Cleveland where income-tax proceeds from NASA workers now go to Brook Park.

In return, Cleveland and Mayor Michael R. White got the IX Center and land on which White wanted to build a runway for all those 16-hour flights that leave Hopkins each day for places like Beijing, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

“I’m so happy for Mayor Jackson about the convention,” said Coyne. “And I’m ecstatic about LeBron. But we’re missing the boat on NASA. For all these years, people have talked about NASA being our crown jewel. And every time its budget is threatened, the results are the same. It never changes. We lose funding.

“Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman [Ohio’s senators], and everyone in this congressional delegation should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve really missed the boat on this.”

If the budget cuts continue, we’ll be missing not only the boat, but the engine that helps drive the entire economy.

Brent Larkin was The Plain Dealer's editorial director from 1991 until his retirement in 2009.

To reach Brent Larkin: (216) 999-4252