HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - The University of Connecticut Health Center has again asked the General Assembly for more money.

UConn officials asked state lawmakers Tuesday for $22 million, saying the 224-bed John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington is too small to make a profit.

The hospital received $20 million from the state in 2000 and $10 million last year to help pay for fringe benefits that are costlier than at similar hospitals.

Of more than 100 departments, agencies and commissions funded by the state, only six came to the legislature's budget-writing committee Tuesday with deficits in the current fiscal year. The health center had the highest.

Lorraine Aronson, vice president and chief financial officer at UConn, told lawmakers it's not realistic to expect a hospital as small as Dempsey to be financially self-sufficient.

Only 108 of the hospital's 224 beds are available for general medical care because the remainder are set aside for maternity and psychiatric patients and prison inmates, she said.

Aronson said 96 percent of the hospital's deficit last year was related to the maternity, psychiatric and neonatal wards.

Sen. Toni Harp, D- New Haven, co-chairwoman of the budget committee, supports the hospital's request for more money. She told lawmakers and state officials that her views were formed partly because her daughter graduated from the UConn School of Medicine.

If the hospital cannot cover its expenses through the various reimbursements it receives, ``then so be it,'' she said.

But Rep. Christopher Caruso, D-Bridgeport, disagreed, saying the size of the bailout is excessive.

Caruso told The Hartford Courant that legislators who are University of Connecticut alumni or have children attending the school are not objective when considering the Health Center's deficits.

``It's out of control,'' he said. ``It's a simple as that. For the legislature to bail them out again would be inexcusable. In the real world, with deficits like that, executives would be fired and removed.''

State budget director Robert Genuario said his office is examining the numbers submitted by UConn because he was not satisfied with information provided by university officials.

Genuario supported the $20 million bailout in 2000 when he was a state senator. But he said that UConn pledged last year to ``right the ship'' and to not return for more money.

``They're a state agency and they have some issues, which I don't downplay _ the size of the hospital, the cost of the fringe benefits,'' Genuario said. ``They're losing money in their medical group, which is unusual for a university health center.''