Paul Francis in Albany this week. Richard Beaven for The Wall Street Journal
Paul Francis was one of Albany's most influential behind-the-scenes players, a budget guru who spent decades as a top executive at companies such as Priceline.com PCLN -1.24% and Ann Taylor before joining Gov. Eliot Spitzer's 2005 campaign and, later, his administration.
Two years ago, a bout of sepsis left Mr. Francis in a medically induced coma for nearly two weeks and forced doctors to amputate his left arm below the elbow.
Since his near-death experience, Mr. Francis has become an advocate for an influential lobby of paraplegics, New Yorkers to Cure Paralysis. They have tried unsuccessfully since 2010 to restore about $8.5 million in annual state funding for spinal cord injury research, which they argue is required to be spent by state law.
"I'm generally uncomfortable taking this type of position, especially since I know how the budget process works in Albany, but I genuinely feel like this is a worthy cause since my accident," he said. This is the first—and only—political cause Mr. Francis said he plans to take up. And his mere presence in Albany appears to be paying off.
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Paul Francis, advocate for New Yorkers to Cure Paralysis, talks to coalition co-founder Paul Richter ahead of a day of lobbying. Richard Beaven for The Wall Street Journal
Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Morelle said he plans to call on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to increase the paralysis research funding in the coming weeks, adding that a "most compelling part of this is the human story."
"We're hoping to step up our efforts," he said. "Paul Francis is obviously an important person with a long history here. And he has relationships with folks on the second floor, in the governor's office, so that will help."
The $8.5 million in annual funding—started in 1998 and paid for through a surcharge on state traffic fines—was cut by former Gov. David Paterson's administration in 2010 amid a $9.2 billion budget shortfall. Roughly $2 million was restored last year, and Mr. Cuomo's 2014 budget earmarked another $2 million plus $900,000 that went unspent last year. Officials from the state's Division of Budget declined to comment further on the funding request.
A group of New York hospitals and medical researchers say the state money is critical to researching new ways to restore the use of some motor skills in paralyzed patients, including cell therapy.
"For a long time, people thought that chronic injury was just too hard to fix," said Dr. Mark Noble, professor of genetics, neurobiology and neurology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, one of the major recipients of roughly $71 million in paralysis research funding provided by the state over the past decade. "But restoring function in chronic injury is now possible. And this gives us great impetus for the work we're trying to do and the money we need."
Mr. Francis is well versed in the minutiae of Albany budget politics. After serving as director of state operations, state budget director and director of agency redesign under three different New York governors, Mr. Francis, 59 years old, left government last year to take some time off. He is now a senior fellow at New York University's School of Law, his alma mater, where he devotes his time to public policy research.
Mr. Francis doesn't use a wheelchair like many of those he advocates for; he has a rather simple prosthetic with a pincer on the end. Since he can't type with both hands anymore, he uses voice-recognition software to churn out emails and memos. He described the paralysis funding lobbying effort as both "very personal" and a "one-off," reflecting the conflicted nature of a seasoned finance hand turned advocate.
"My disability seems so trivial compared with those who are completely paralyzed," Mr. Francis said from his Law School office. "It was my left arm and I'm right-handed. It seems so small. But it made me appreciate how your life can change in an instant and how important this research is."
He is one of a high-powered group of disability advocates lobbying in Albany, including retired New York state trooper Paul Richter, who was shot and paralyzed in 1973 during a traffic stop in Lake Placid, N.Y.; Wall Street financier David Carmel, who was paralyzed in a 1999 diving accident in Mexico; and Nancy A. Lieberman, a Manhattan corporate attorney who was paralyzed in 2007 during a skiing accident in Colorado. They enlisted Mr. Francis to help them navigate the state's often-Byzantine budgeting process.
"The budget people in Albany listen, and they smile, and then they say nothing," said Ms. Lieberman, who asked Mr. Francis to join the effort. "So we needed someone like Paul. When I went to lunch with him last year, and I told him how sorry I was about his arm, he said, 'Are you kidding me? I can stand up. I can walk.' He now has an understanding for what we're trying to do."