Budget talks near end in Florida Legislature

Hundreds of millions of dollars in college and university construction projects remained up in the air in down-to-the-wire budget negotiations at Florida’s Capitol Monday, but Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, predicted that the budget would be finished by Tuesday in time for a scheduled Friday adjournment.

Political influence plays a role in hometown spending decisions and every state university has powerful political supporters. Gardiner’s hometown school is the University of Central Florida, and he told reporters that the Legislature can’t possibly fund the $450 million worth of total projects on a list approved in January by the Board of Governors. The biggest project on the board’s list is $58 million for UCF’s new downtown Orlando presence — which Gardiner and other Orlando-area lawmakers strongly support. The estimated three-year cost of funding the Orlando project is $164 million.

“We want to have some guiding principles in dealing with which projects are ready to do and which ones are still in the planning stage,” Gardiner said.

Gardiner singled out the UCF downtown project and $17 million to relocate University of South Florida’s Morsani College of Medicine as part of a major downtown Tampa redevelopment project as priorities because they can generate economic activity.

“I’d like to see the state be a partner with them,” he said.

Even if the Legislature approves the USF project funding and Gov. Rick Scott doesn’t veto it, the Florida Board of Governors still must approve the relocation of the USF Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute to the downtown location, university system spokeswoman Brittany Davis said in an email to the Tampa Bay Times.

Lawmakers are in the final days of a special session after the health care stalemate derailed their regular session that ended in May. State government will be partially shut down if a new budget isn’t in place by July 1. House and Senate leaders said they expect lawmakers to vote on a budget this Friday.

The Florida Constitution requires a 72-hour delay from the time the budget is completed until lawmakers can vote on it.

This story was originally published June 15, 2015 at 2:45 PM with the headline "Budget talks near end in Florida Legislature."