Mitch Perry
The Tampa Bay Times lead Thursday is a story that we touched upon briefly Wednesday because the Legislature is now half-way through its Special Session in Tallahassee: There are fears among Tampa leaders that state funding for a USF College of Medicine building ($17 million) and accompanying USF Heart Institute ($15.75 million) is in peril.
There is a dispute about whether the projects should be bonded, since legislators say there’s not enough money to pay for the projects directly.
The projects were two of the first announced would be placed in Tampa Bay Lightning/developer Jeff Vinik‘s ambitious billion-dollar plan to revitalize the Channelside District last fall. Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn declared the development a “game changer,” the theory being that luring university centers into the urban core is one of the better developments for a downtown, a trend in other cities across the U.S. in recent years.
“If we are able to pull that off, that’s going to change the whole dynamic,” Buckhorn told The Tampa Tribune last fall. “Not only will the medical school come down, but probably pharmacy will come down, the Heart Institute, the College of Nursing. You create a whole economic engine there that will fill up the apartments and condos that are being built. It will bring in retail.”
Yes, there’s a lot riding on these projects getting funding.
So let’s go to a quote from the mayor in Thursday’s Times. When asked what he thought might happen if the Legislature failed to provide any funding in this year’s budget for the two USF institutions, the mayor said, “I think Jeff’s going to move forward regardless.”
Really? If that’s the case, maybe we can just end the drama right now and let Vinik pay for the buildings, since he’s already offered up the land to the school for free.
Obviously, that’s not what Vinik or those at Strategic Property Partners, his development firm, aspire to at all. They are prepared to spend lots of money on the plan, but they don’t want to do it all themselves. And they’re not, because the Tampa is already good for $15 million for new roads, sidewalks and other infrastructure near Channelside, with Hillsborough County expected to fund another $15 million.
Let’s face it: Conservatives love to denounce government choosing “winners and losers,” but when elected officials fund certain local projects and not others, that’s exactly what they’re doing. And while public financing for items such as sports stadiums and Hollywood productions may be more unsavory to some than giving money to a university medical center, it’s still the same thing.
There will be a resolution on this question within the next week.
In other news …
Transit activists are none too pleased to hear preliminary plans for a half-cent sales tax referendum for 2016 in Hillsborough would include only 30 percent for mass transit projects.
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Two new polls released by Saint Leo University were interesting. One shows that although Patrick Murphy barely leads Alan Grayson in a potential Democratic race for U.S. Senate in 2016, Murphy blows every potential Republican mentioned as a possible candidate away in head-to-head match-ups. That includes Ron DeSantis, the only major Republican candidate who has officially entered the race.
A second Saint Leo poll shows that although Jeb Bush continues to lead in Florida for the March 15 GOP primary for president, Marco Rubio is catching up to him, and in a direct, one-on-one match-up, now leads Bush, 48-40 percent.
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Meanwhile, Florida Family Action president John Stemberger is reportedly neutral in the race between Rubio and Bush, but a a new report out says that the top social conservative is definitely favoring the insurgent.
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Rick Scott signed a bill allowing for modest reforms at the Public Service Commission.
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Hillsborough Public Transportation Commission Chair Kyle Cockream promises that soon-to-be announced new regulations on Uber and Lyft will show flexibility toward the controversial share-riding services.
