By B.C. Manion
A veto by Gov. Rick Scott has dealt a blow to a planned community college campus in Wesley Chapel, but it wasn’t a knockout punch.
“While we are disappointed in the governor’s decision to veto the final funding installment for the Pasco-Hernando Community College Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch, we respect his authority and decision to do so,” PHCC officials said in a May 26 statement.
However, officials added: “The residents of Pasco County can rest assured that the project will move forward, though the completion may be delayed.”
J.D. Porter, whose family owns Wiregrass Ranch and supplied the 60-acre tract for the campus, said he’s confident that “funding will be there by the time it is necessary.”
Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, who has championed the community college project, said he plans to work hard to get additional funding.
“I’m going to make it one of my top priorities,” Weatherford said.
Before Scott’s veto, classes were slated to begin in 2013-14. It is not yet known whether that schedule will be delayed.
State Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, criticized Scott for vetoing the PHCC project, while allowing more than $30 million for a University of South Florida project to expand its Lakeland campus into USF Polytechnic.
Fasano called Scott’s action “disingenuous and a little bit hypocritical.”
Fasano also noted the Polytechnic project was backed by Senate Budget Chairman J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales. When Scott preserved those funds, the governor was “pandering to one senator that holds the purse strings,” Fasano said.
Both Weatherford and Fasano said the Porter Campus at Wiregrass is needed to serve Pasco residents.
Weatherford also noted that the location for the additional campus is logical because most of Pasco County’s growth has been in central Pasco, along the SR 54 corridor.
Providing additional opportunity for higher education is important, as Pasco attempts to transform itself from a bedroom community to “a center of economic prosperity,” Weatherford said.
The county has already attracted T. Rowe Price, which has purchased a site at SR 54 and Sunlake Boulevard and has eventual plans for a corporate campus that could employ up to 1,600 people.
Raymond James, a financial services company, also is eyeing Pasco County.
It has signed a letter of intent to purchase land in Wiregrass Ranch, Weatherford said.
Weatherford noted that Scott did not veto $4 million in state road money that would pay for access roads to the site. Weatherford said the governor told him that he wasn’t going to veto that line item because that appropriation has value.
If the Raymond James deal comes through it would have a significant positive impact in a county that’s dealing with an unemployment rate of more than 12 percent, Weatherford said.
