Manatee County dodges Gov. Scott’s veto pen for millions in 2018-19 funding

Gov. Rick Scott signed the state’s 2018-19 budget on Friday, after he used his line-item vetoes on revenue items and trust funds totaling less than $65 million. Manatee County managed to dodge the governor’s knife, keeping all but one item that was in the budget approved last Sunday by Florida legislators.

Scott again vetoed $50,000 of recurring funds for an item listed as the South Florida Museum’s Institute for STEAM Teaching: Center for PAInT. And plenty of other items never made it to Scott’s desk, having failed to pass the House and Senate during session.

Here’s a look at money specific to Manatee that will make its way from Tallahassee in the $88.7 billion budget.

Winners include:

These are the programs that have had their funds increased compared to last year:

<bullet>School Readiness Program for the Early Learning Coalition of Manatee County: $9,435,198

<bullet>Boys & Girls Club of Manatee: $1,000,000

For the School Readiness Program, it’s a $107,405 increase compared to what was approved last year.

The funds for the Boys and Girls Club of Manatee will be used to help rebuild the 50-year-old Desoto Boys & Girls Club, located at 5231 34th St. W. The organization has a goal of fundraising $7.5 million for the project, for which they currently have nearly $5.8 million. Dawn Stanhope, president of the organization, said Senate President-Designate Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, has been very supportive of the organization. Construction will begin in June, and when it’s complete it will serve 600 children, more than double the capacity it handles now.

“It’s been an ongoing need for our community,” Stanhope said.

Losers include:

Education institutions suffered losses in this year’s proposed budget.

<bullet>University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee (USFSM): $10,888,702

<bullet>State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota (SCF): $23,851,956

<bullet>Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program for the Early Learning Coalition of Manatee County: $6,400,100

Both USFSM and SCF went through budget cuts and vetoes last year, and this year is no different. The former is slated to get $3,426,867 fewer than what it got last year, and SCF may lose out on $1,619,028.

Although SCF lost out on about $1.15 million in recurring funds from the budget last year, Brian Thomas, special assistant to the SCF president, said they had received $1.38 million in non-recurring funds from the local legislative delegation to offset the impact in 2017.

This year doesn’t make up for it, as they expect to receive $174,000 in new recurring funds.

The school could receive $4 million to renovate its popular science building, which is $2.2 million shy of what they needed.

Next year, the budgets for the independent campuses of the University of South Florida — Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee — will be absorbed into one budget for the USF system. Gov. Rick Scott signed into law SB 4, also known as the Florida Excellence in Higher Education Act sponsored by Galvano. The highlighting achievement was permanently expanding the Bright Futures scholarship program, but also detailed that each USF campus must merge into a single university system by June 2020.

The St. Petersburg campus gained its accreditation in 2006 and Sarasota-Manatee in 2011. The purpose of having all three USF campuses under one accreditation, also branded as “reunification,” is for the school to reach preeminent status, a designation that comes with more funding. Other reasons, detailed to the Bradenton Herald by USF System trustee Byron Shinn in January, include adding new programs and sharing resources.

USFSM spokesman Shawn Ahearn said, after speaking with partners in Tampa, that they are “optimistic” in the reunification process.

“(In) time, additional resources could be put into our programs of strategic importance, especially in the STEM fields,” he wrote in part in an email to the Bradenton Herald.

Second chances

These appropriations were nixed last year in a slash-and-burn veto. This is what they asked for this year:

<bullet>Manatee County Robinson Preserve habitat restoration: $600,000

<bullet>Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM): $2,116,907

<bullet>Manatee River Fair Association: $450,000

A boost for the Robinson Preserve expansion project, sponsored by state Rep. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, will be used to help remold former farmland as 150 acres of coastal habitat. Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources Director Charlie Hunsicker had his fingers crossed, as the department is in the last hurdle, long passing the deadline to be finished by early 2018.

In the previous state budget, Scott vetoed the $600,000 ask from the county.

“The concern last year in the governor’s veto message following the approval of the project (in the House and Senate) was that there was believed to be other funding sources available that would be utilized,” Hunsicker said.

Hunsicker said he had been asked if they could use BP oil spill funds approved by the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council earlier this year, but no, he said, that was for another Robinson-related project. He said he tried to assure officials that “we have left no stone unturned.”

The Manatee River Fair Association, the organization that helps put on the Manatee County Fair, was up for $167,217 in the previous state budget and are now slated for more than double that amount. As for LECOM, $1,691,010 are recurring funds and $425,897 are non-recurring funds, a decrease of $383,093 from their previous request. These funds will be used to financially help Florida residents who are enrolled in the osteopathic medicine or pharmacy program at LECOM.

Recurring funds

The following funds are recurring and therefore are the same as the 2017 state budget:

<bullet>Manatee County Sheriff’s Office child protection investigations: $4,855,360

<bullet>Manatee Glens (Centerstone): $750,000

<bullet>Manatee County Rural Health: $82,283

This story was originally published March 16, 2018 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Manatee County dodges Gov. Scott’s veto pen for millions in 2018-19 funding."