Pasco County had some hits and misses in the 2017 state budget.
Gov. Rick Scott signed a statewide budget bill of about $82 billion on March 17. But not before he slashed about $256 million in vetoed items, including $11 million sought for the proposed performing arts center at the Pasco-Hernando State College.
However, he spared some Pasco projects including $450,000 for repairs and upkeep at the Baldomero Lopez Memorial Veterans Nursing Home in Land O’ Lakes and $53,500 for the Pioneer Florida Museum & Village in Dade City.
(File Photo)
The performing arts center is planned for joint uses between the college and Pasco County Schools. It likely will be built on property near the Pasco-Hernando State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch.
In two prior years, requests of $10 million each made it through safely. This is the first rejection for a project expected to cost as much as $60 million.
“It’s disappointing, but we understand it’s a complex statewide budget,” said Lucy Miller, spokeswoman for the state college. “There’s always another year we can vie for funds. It’s a fact that we have to look at other options and see what’s out there.”
Miller noted, however, that it’s unlikely to be a private donor with deep enough pockets to foot such a large bill.
Planning for the project will move forward, she said.
The college currently operates a performing arts center in a 620-seat theater on its West Campus in New Port Richey. The proposed facility would have up to 3,000 seats, and could serve as training ground for college and high school performing arts’ students.
It also has potential for conferences, conventions, trade shows and high school graduation ceremonies.
A 2013 study by the Urban Land Institute found that Pasco lacks sufficient cultural and arts venues, and should consider using revenues from the Penny for Pasco program to support such projects.
Scott also rejected some other Pasco projects.
He cut $250,000 to help reopen the Moore Mickens Education Center in Dade City and $75,000 to restore the historical Capt. Harold B. Jeffries’ house in Zephyrhills.
The Moore Mickens school was Pasco’s first school for black students. In more recent years, the school provided adult education, a Cyesis program for pregnant teenagers and an early childhood education program for child care workers.
School officials closed Moore Mickens in 2015 and transferred its programs to other sites.
The request for the Jeffries’ house in Zephyrhills landed on the annual “turkey watch” list issued by Florida Taxwatch.
Built in 1912, the structure is the original home of Jeffries, the Civil War veteran who settled Zephyrhills in the hopes of bringing other war veterans with him.
The private, nonprofit Taxwatch group doesn’t judge a project’s worthiness, but singles out projects for a lack of transparency and accountability.
According to Taxwatch, the request for the restoration funds didn’t go through the historical properties grant process.
Another project on the turkey list escaped the veto pen: Scott led stand a request for $750,000 for a multi-modal trail across U.S. 19 in New Port Richey.
Other winners in Pasco are the STEM aeronautics academy at Sunlake High School and other locations, with $750,000; Dade City, with $400,000 for a storm water project; Pasco Sheriff’s child protective unit, with $400,000; Lighthouse for the Blind in Pasco and Hernando counties, with $100,000; and $250,000 for a new kitchen for the Senior Elderly Nutrition Program in Land O’ Lakes.
Sometimes persistence pays off.
Last year, Gov. Scott vetoed a similar request for the kitchen. He also scuttled a larger request of $1.9 million for Dade City’s storm water initiative.
Published March 30, 2016
