TALLAHASSEE -- House Speaker Ray Sansom reluctantly resigned a six-figure job at his hometown college Monday, succumbing to intense public criticism and questions about tens of millions in tax dollars he steered to the school.

''I accepted my position at the college with pure intentions and for good reasons,'' the Destin Republican said at the start of a special session to cut more than $2 billion from the current state budget -- a backdrop that only amplified questions about the $110,000-a-year position.

''Unfortunately, some have disagreed with my decision,'' Sansom said. ``While I do not question their motives, I strongly object to their conclusions.''

Sansom has been engulfed in controversy over the job -- which he took on the same day in November that he was sworn in as House speaker -- nearly from the beginning. A series of articles by the Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau detailed Sansom's record of lavishing the college with construction project money in recent years, leading some to wonder if the high-paying job was a reward for his taxpayer-funded generosity.

URGED TO RESIGN

Constituents wrote to their Tallahassee representatives asking them to urge Sansom to resign the job, and one Clearwater man filed a formal ethics complaint.

Sansom on Jan. 31 will leave his position as vice president for development at Northwest Florida State College, a job he started on Dec. 1. For his two months, Sansom will be paid about $18,300.

He delivered the news Monday in a quick and somber speech and immediately pledged to get to work on the state budget. Fellow lawmakers, who had been reticent to criticize the newly installed speaker of the House even as their own supporters back home complained, seemed relieved.

''Given the feelings in the public, it was appropriate,'' said Rep. Faye Culp, R-Tampa.

''It was an appropriate first step,'' agreed Rep. Keith Fitzgerald, D-Sarasota. But ``it's too late for this to be swept away by a simple move like that.''

Little was known Monday how Sansom reached his decision to resign or what he might do for work. Before his new job, he was earning about $83,000 as an economic development representative for Alabama Electric Cooperative. As House speaker he's paid about $42,000. He and his wife, Tricia, have three daughters.

''I think he's said all he's going to say,'' spokeswoman Jill Chamberlin said.

While Sansom, 46, sought to put an end to the issue, hard questions remain about his dealings in the two years leading up to his taking the job, which was not advertised.

Chief among them is $6 million he inserted into the 2007 budget for what the college is calling an emergency training and operations center at Destin Airport. Before the school got the project money, Sansom's friend, Panhandle developer and major GOP donor Jay Odom, had tried and failed to get state money for an airport hangar on the same site. Odom wanted taxpayer money to build a hurricane-proof aircraft hangar to store jets for his flight business, but that local officials could use in a storm.

Sansom and the college deny any connection between the two buildings, though a review of public records by the Herald/Times showed the projects are virtually the same.

The Herald/Times also documented how over the past two years, as Sansom was in charge of the House budget, he secured about $35 million in extra or accelerated funding for Northwest Florida State. As he did this, Sansom was preaching fiscal restraint and urged lawmakers to ease off on local budget requests.

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