State Budget

Money rolls in

"Florida State University’s preeminent designation, achieved during the 2013 legislative session, is bringing in even more riches this year.
When lawmakers created preeminence standards that only FSU and University of Florida met, the new statute called for each to receive an additional $75 million over five years, dispersed in $15 million annual payments, as each pursued specific goals related to national rankings.
Fast-forward 12 months, and the budget going to the governor’s desk has upped the amount for FSU and UF by $5 million a year to $20 million in additional annual funding.
For FSU, ranked No. 40 among the nation’s public universities, that money will help recruit additional faculty in key areas as the university looks to reduce its student-teacher ratio to better than 25-1. FSU is aiming to be a top 25 institution by decade’s end.
UF, ranked No. 12 by U.S. News & World Report, is close to reaching its goal of being a top 10 public university, but it will face stiff competition from nationally prominent schools as it tries to advance its ranking.
“It is clear that Gov. Scott and Speaker (Will) Weatherford and (Senate) President (Don) Gaetz have recognized there is value to have preeminent universities to the state of Florida,” Marshall Criser III, chancellor of the State University System, said. “Having preeminent universities is a signal to the rest of the country that Florida is prepared to take higher education to the next step.”

$10M for engineering

FSU and Florida A&M both fared well in the session that concluded Friday. While much of the talk during the past month focused on a possible split of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering (COE), a unique, joint venture created by the Legislature in 1982, that discussion was put on hold last week. The Board of Governors is set to receive $500,000 to hire an outside firm to assess the engineering college and make recommendations regarding its future.
Nevertheless, the House and Senate are providing $10 million to COE, funding requested by BOG that would go toward much-needed facilities improvements.

Performance funding

The Legislature has fully embraced the performance funding model established by BOG, providing BOG with $200 million to distribute based on each university’s scores in 10 areas. A portion of that $200 million is from the base funding for the State University System; FSU and FAMU both stand to benefit as a result of their current scores. (The three worst-performing schools, based on BOG metrics — West Florida, Florida Atlantic and New College — will lose a a portion of their funding.)
Last year, when performance funding made its debut, the Legislature provided $20 million to BOG – one-tenth the amount allocated in this year’s budget.

$20M for maintenance

FSU and FAMU each will receive a portion of $20 million for “critical deferred maintenance”; it’s the first time that there has been funding in this category despite annual requests from BOG. This year’s request was for $60 million in critical deferred maintenance. The system also received $37.6 million for renovation, remodeling and repair. This is Public Education Capital Outlay (PECO) money collected and distributed based on a formula.

$20M for Earth sciences

FSU, eager to build an estimated $60 million building near the intersection of West Tennessee Street and Woodward Avenue to house its Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, will get $20 million of the $30 million BOG had requested from the Legislature. FSU had received about $3.8 million two years ago to design the EOAS building.
“Funding for the EOAS building is a very high priority for us,” FSU interim President Garnett Stokes said. “Our internationally respected teaching and research programs in the modern geosciences have produced science graduates who have achieved distinction in serving Florida and the national community. EOAS is currently spread across the FSU campus in aging facilities, many built in the 1950s. The new EOAS building will collocate the significant talent we have in a key STEM area for the state of Florida and will facilitate their work at the forefront of identifying solutions to many serious problems threatening our quality of life.”

$2.5M for STEM

FSU and FAMU are both scheduled to receive recurring $2.5 million for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) enhancement, part of $84 million in special projects that lawmakers approved for the state’s universities.

Pharmacy funds

FAMU is set to receive $1 million to boost its distance learning portfolio, and $1.5 million to operate its satellite pharmacy program in Crestview, Okaloosa County.
The College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, one of FAMU’s flagship programs, is set to receive much-needed money on two fronts. The budget would provide $10 million that would enable the university to complete a second building located directly north of COPPS headquarters.
COPPS also would receive $700,000 for salary adjustments, helping Michael Thompson, COPPS’ dean, close the gap between what his faculty members earn vs. the state average at public pharmacy programs. FAMU had requested $1.4 million for salary adjustments. COPPS’ accrediting body has alerted FAMU that its salaries at COPPS need to improve.
“The money for salary adjustment is huge,” Thompson said. “It will help us get closer to where we need to be.”

BY THE NUMBERS

FSU and Florida A&M both fared well financially in the legislative session that concluded Friday. Some of the provisions:

$75 million

Amount originally slated to be given to FSU and the University of Florida in $15 million increments over five years, in order to pursue specific goals related to national rankings

$5 million

Additional amount per year awarded in the budget that passed this week.

$500,000

Amount awarded to the Board of Governors to hire an outside firm to assess the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering

$10 million

Amount awarded to the Board of Governors for facilities improvements.

$200 million

Awarded to the Board of Governors to distribute based on the performance funding model, up from $20 million last year.

$20 million

for FSU to build its planned Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science building.

$2.5 million

Amount FSU and FAMU are scheduled to receive for STEM enhancement."


State Names FSU Professorship After Bay's Charlie Hilton

"One of Florida’s most successful business leaders and outspoken advocates for economic freedom will be honored by the State of Florida with a named professorship at Florida State University, one of Florida’s two preeminent research institutions.

The L. Charles Hilton, Jr. Distinguished Professorship in Economic Prosperity and Individual Opportunity was established by the Florida Legislature this year and appropriated $600,000 in recurring annual funding.

The funding will be used to recruit and employ a nationally-renowned academic leader who will teach in Florida State University’s College of Social Sciences and Public Policy with a tenure home in its Department of Economics and an appointment within the DeVoe Moore Center. In this capacity, this scholar will conduct research on markets and the institutions that play an important role in determining economic prosperity and individual opportunity.  The Hilton Professor will also coordinate a national symposium to discuss and share best practices among the states in achieving these goals.

The Hilton Professorship is a joint initiative of Senate President Don Gaetz (R-Niceville) and House Speaker Will Weatherford (R-Wesley Chapel), who both say their public service careers and policies have been influenced by their friendship with Hilton.

“Charlie Hilton is the personification of rugged American individualism,” Speaker Weatherford and President Gaetz said.  “He lifted himself up with phenomenal work and skill.  His success is not inherited; every bit of it is earned.  His rock-solid faith in America, his commitment to freedom in the marketplace and in the public square, and his unconquerable spirit can inspire and teach generations of young Floridians through this distinguished professorship and academic program.”

“The addition of the L. Charles Hilton, Jr. Named Professorship will strengthen the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy’s Department of Economics in an area of scholarship targeted for growth by the faculty as well as impact the university’s overall goal of advancing to the top 25 public universities in the nation,” said Garnett S. Stokes, Florida State’s interim president. “We are grateful for this opportunity to grow our tenured faculty ranks and at the same time contribute to important public policy research issues.”

For more than half a century, Mr. Hilton has been one of Florida’s most innovative and effective entrepreneurs.  After earning his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Florida and serving in the United States Air Force, he became a celebrated trial attorney and law partner of former Senate President Dempsey Barron (D-Panama City).  Beginning in the 1950’s, Mr. Hilton began building a business empire of banks, investment firms, hotels and restaurants, construction companies, golf courses and a cable television system all headquartered in Bay County, Florida.

Mr. Hilton and his wife, Lela, established the Hilton Family Foundation to promote education and health care research worldwide.  He is the immediate past Chairman of the Board of the James Madison Institute, a Florida-based research and educational organization promoting limited government solutions to economic issues. Mr. Hilton has served in the leadership of dozens of national, state and local charitable and civic associations.

“Charlie Hilton has been a titan in Florida’s movement to preserve and expand free enterprise,” said Speaker Weatherford.  “The Florida Legislature is proud to honor his contributions to our state’s economy by establishing this professorship at Florida State University.”

“There are a thousand stories about Charlie Hilton and his advocacy of economic freedom,” said President Gaetz.  “One of my favorites is his letter to a politician who offered him some government help, in which Charlie famously wrote, ‘All I want from government is less of it.’  That ought to be chiseled into granite.”"