Jesse Scheckner
A $2.5 million set-aside to create a Miami museum preserving the history of thousands of children who immigrated from Cuba in the early 1960s shouldn’t get state general fund dollars, Florida TaxWatch says.
It’s not necessarily because the project isn’t worth funding, the Tallahassee-based nonprofit said in its 2024 Budget Turkey Watch Report. Rather, it’s because Miami Sen. Alexis Calatayud and Hillsborough County Rep. Danny Alvarez circumvented Florida’s competitive evaluation and prioritization grant process by requesting the funds directly where they should have allowed for their proper evaluation.
Calatayud and Alvarez both sought $5 million for the project helmed by Operation Pedro Pan Group Inc., which plans to acquire an existing building to house historical art, exhibits, archival storage, and meeting and office space.
They ultimately secured half that sum by the end of Session in March.
For many South Florida residents, particularly in Miami-Dade County, Operation Pedro Pan was a transformative moment in their familial histories. From 1960 to 1962, more than 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban children left their homeland in the early years of the Cuban Communist Revolution with the help of the Catholic Welfare Bureau in Miami.
To this day, Operation Pedro Pan remains the largest recorded unaccompanied child refugee exodus in the Western Hemisphere, though close to 90% of the kids under the Bureau’s care reunited with their parents by mid-1966.
In addition to housing standard museum fare, the lawmakers’ funding request said the facility would also host documentary screenings, book presentations and signings, musicals and cultural events showcasing “the many contributions by Pedro Pans in music, art, cuisine, architecture, medicine, law, public service, etc.”
“The museum would offer entertainment and educational services for the whole community in the form of activities centered around the Pedro Pan experience, such as the history of the Cold War, the evils of communism, and the Pedro Pan contributions in a myriad of fields,” the requests said. “Pedro Pan is a compelling story that teaches the importance of freedom.”
The Pedro Pan project was one of 450 appropriation projects totaling $854.6 million that Florida TaxWatch members said should be nixed from the coming budget.
One comment
Dont Say FLA
May 16, 2024 at 10:29 am
“A $2.5 million set-aside to create a Miami museum preserving the history of thousands of children who immigrated from Cuba in the early 1960s should have followed the normal budget process but did not follow the normal budget process” is more what Florida TaxWatch said.
What’s with the continuing attacks on Florida TaxWatch with the posts implying the funded organizations are not worthy?
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