The operating budget includes $485.6 million for capital projects – compared to $519 million last year – and consists of allocations for the College of Business’ Legacy Hall slated to be complete this summer, the new Football Operations Facility, Doak Campbell Stadium and FSU’s future Academic Health Center, which is expected to open in late 2026.
While the FSU Academic Health Center initiative in Tallahassee has a total fixed capital outlay budget of $137.5 million, a projected $107.6 million is included in the 2025-26 budget for construction, coming out as the university's priciest project for this year.
Regarding funding allocations for research in the approved budget, the total revenue from federal grants in the university’s restricted fund is $250 million, which is expected to be a $34.6 million decrease compared to last year amid federal funding cuts that have hit home for FSU.
Here are all of the university’s 2025-26 capital projects, with allocations for each:FSU Academic Health Center: $107.6 million Football Operations Facility: $65.3 million Doak Campbell Stadium Premium Seating: $50.3 million Academic Support Facility (Maintenance Complex): $35 million College of Business' Legacy Hall: $33.5 million NW Community Housing & Dining: $25 million Lacrosse Field and Facility: $16.5 million National High Magnetic Field Laboratory Primary Electrical: $15.4 million Interdisciplinary Research and Commercialization Building: $15.1 million All others (144 projects under $10 million): $121.7 million
"The 2025-2026 Annual Operating Budget includes $486 million for capital projects. The capital outlay budget includes allocations for the FSU Academic Health Center in Tallahassee, the new Football Operations Facility, Doak Campbell Stadium, and the College of Business’ Legacy Hall.
The university’s operating budget injects an estimated $14.7 billion into the local and state economies annually, according to the FSU Center for Economic Forecasting and Analysis. That estimate includes about $4.8 billion in direct revenue or sales and over $197 million in spending by non-resident students, as well as $8.77 billion in lifetime earnings by recent FSU graduates, based on the center’s latest Florida State University System report. "
"The chambers agreed to fund $42.4 million to Florida State University for operational funding, the most of any institution."
"The House included in its sprinkle list $4 million for Florida State University, half for the newly created Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases and half for Sunshine Genetics Pilot Program. "
As Florida State University still basks in the glow of a successful legislative session, its Board of Trustees recently approved a $219 million state budget request — one with a STEM focus — for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
While the request includes five main initiatives with $96 million in new money, one of them is an ask for $56 million for the modernization of Tallahassee’s National High Magnetic Field Laboratory that is headquartered at FSU.
FSU trustees also recently approved the university’s largest operating budget in history, which is $3 billion for 2024-2025.
Besides the state budget money being requested for the National MagLab — which is billed as the largest and highest-powered magnet lab in the world — FSU’s wish list for next year’s session shows millions of dollars being requested for a new Translational Aging Research Hub as well as FSU Health and research operations.
The budget also includes recurring funding requests for the joint FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and for growth of FSU’s national prominence, where $65 million is being requested compared to $50 million that was requested for this current fiscal year.
“This will be a lot of work, and we appreciate any chance that any of you as trustees will get to talk to our representatives to support our vision,” FSU President Richard McCullough told the board Monday. “Our time is now.”
When it comes to the MagLab, the facility is Florida’s only national laboratory. It is also home to 17 world-record magnet systems and it hosts nearly 2,000 users every year who conduct ground-breaking research.
This year, the state budget included $25 million of Public Education Capital Outlay (PECO) funds that went toward the MagLab.
“I think we've done a really good job over the last two or three years of educating a lot of the senior leadership in the legislature, but there's still a lot of legislators that really don't understand the impact of Florida having a national lab, the prestige it brings and the researchers it brings to Florida and to Florida State,” Collins said. “We're definitely going to have to do some more educating, but I feel really good about this request.”
A little over $5 million dollars of recurring funds is being requested for the 2025-26 fiscal year while $51 million would come from non-recurring funds for modernization tasks — including facility upgrades to maintain world-record magnet systems and the construction of a new Magnet Fabrication building to expand capacity for new magnet creation.
FSU’s $35.5 million request for a Translational Aging Research Hub is in efforts of positioning Florida to be the national leader in healthy aging research, care delivery and digital health solutions.
Investments include creating a center for excellence focused on healthy aging and digital health, creating a statewide informatics and data science infrastructure to support interdisciplinary public health research, and creating training programs and information networks for caregivers and health services providers around healthy aging, according to a report of the legislative budget request.
While $7 million of the request would be recurring funds, $28.5 million would come from non-recurring funds.
Here’s a list of the remaining top items from FSU’s wish list in the legislative budget request for the 2025-26 fiscal year:
Bolstering FSU Health and research operations: $50 million ($33.5 million in recurring funds, $16.5 million in non-recurring funds to start up new faculty research labs, develop a shared public health research data hub and make laboratory upgrades).
Growing FSU’s national prominence: $65 million (all in recurring funds to hire prominent research faculty, build on nation-leading student success, improve student success for transfers, reducing the student-to-faculty ratio, recruit and retain top talent and invest in new research faculty).
Fueling research and student success in the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering: $13.14 million (all in recurring funds to attract and retain top faculty, hire motivated and skilled staff and provide adequate student financial support).
One of the projects that hit the jackpot in this year’s budget was FSU’s Dittmer Chemistry Lab Building, which received $55.4 million for the university to renovate and redesign its research space.
The chemistry lab building was built in 1967, and the legislative appropriation it received will fully fund the project, according to the university.
FSU will receive $20 million in recurring operational enhancement funds, which will be invested in hiring research faculty and student success efforts.
The university will also get $55 million in non-recurring operational enhancement funds for capital renewal, investments in information technology infrastructure and start-up costs for FSU Health — an initiative that aims to build a health care ecosystem in North Florida.
Besides allocations for the Dittmer Chemistry Lab building, the other projects that will receive new funds from the state budget are:
FSU’s maintenance complex (relocation): $10 million
Veterans Legacy Complex (construction): $7.5 million
FAMU-FSU College of Engineering Building C (planning and construction): $5 million
Center for Energy Independence: $3 million
New College of Nursing facility (design and planning): $2 million
Here are other allocations that will go toward FSU from the budget:
Grants and aids: $622,764,018
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory: $25 million
Kellogg Research Building Remodeling: $19.2 million
Florida Institute for Child Welfare: $10 million
Institute for Governance and Civics: $8 million
Veterans Legacy Complex: $7.5 million
Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases: $5 million
Nursing Education Programs: $2.6 million
College of Medicine’s Autism Institute: $1.48 million
Multidisciplinary Educational Services Centers: $1.45 million
Florida State University’s Board of Trustees Chairman Peter Collins brought a group of local business leaders up to speed Monday about FSU’s changing landscape and its 2020-2030 Campus Master Plan initiatives on the horizon.
While a good chunk of Collins’ talking points referred to the ongoing FSU versus ACC litigation, he also touched on some of the university’s major projects — such as FSU Health and the future of student housing — as he spoke to a group of about 60 Capital Tiger Bay Club members at the Tucker Civic Center during a luncheon.
When it comes to FSU Health, an initiative that aims to build a health care ecosystem in North Florida, Collins says he thinks it's the “most transformative thing done at FSU since hiring Bobby Bowden.”
“It’s our biggest undertaking, and it’s probably the thing that will separate us the most when we talk about AAU (Association of American Universities),” said Collins, an FSU College of Business alumnus.
“FSU Health is all about academic clinical research, raising the level of the physician scientists in Tallahassee and growing that apparatus, but it takes time,” he added.
Ahead of Collins’s guest speaking opportunity at the Monday event, the university’s Board of Trustees met Thursday and approved a $3 billion operating budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, which marks the largest annual spending amount in FSU history.
The university has increased its budget by 50% in the last five years.
Over $500 million from the budget will go toward capital projects — including the Doak Stadium seating enhancements, the College of Business’s Legacy Hall and the FSU partnership with Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare to build a new academic health center.
But looking further ahead, Collins told the club members about FSU’s future expansion plans that include establishing four new residence halls between the next five to six years to meet on-campus housing demands, building an art district and growing its Innovation Park area.
Here are some other FSU highlights Collins addressed during the Capital Tiger Bay Club event:
FSU's current student enrollment is 43,700 compared to 42,800 five years ago.
This year, FSU has $415 million in research expenditures compared to about $200 million six years ago.
FSU’s payroll in 2019 was $678 million, and this past year, it was $856 million. Collins predicts the university will cross the billion dollar threshold — just in salaries — in the next few years.
Through the agreement, a new “FSU Health TMH Trustees” will oversee decisions related to the academic health center and a medical campus underway in Panama City Beach on behalf of the university and hospital.
The joint center’s governance structure will consist of five voting trustees appointed by FSU, including President Richard McCullough, who will serve as chair of the board; four additional voting trustees appointed by TMH, with TMH President and CEO Mark O’Bryant as a nonvoting member, and a vice provost for FSU Health as another nonvoting member.
The memorandum of understanding, or MOU, “is an important step in solidifying our relationship with TMH and establishing the basic operating and governance structure for our partnership as part of the FSU Health initiative,” McCullough said in a prepared statement.
FSU secured $125 million from the Florida Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis two years ago to build the health center, which will be a five-story building of up to 130,000 square feet.
The state-of-the-art facility — to be located on the northeast sector of TMH’s campus off Centerville Road — is expected to help FSU and TMH work toward their main goal of transforming the future of health care across the region during a time where North Florida continues to face a crucial shortage of professionals in the field.
FSU and TMH’s long-term partnership also consists of other initiatives such as the establishment of residency programs for psychiatry, internal medicine and general surgery.
“TMH has been working toward this goal of partnering with FSU to create an academic health center for almost 15 years,” O’Bryant said in a release. “This is a monumental step forward in our relationship, and I’m incredibly excited and proud of the work our teams have done.”
In addition, FSU and TMH will explore combining all the Tallahassee-based residency programs under a single Graduate Medical Education office with guidance from the board and will also develop Centers of Excellence in various clinical areas.
For the flow of funds, FSU will be responsible for the funding of education while TMH will spearhead the funding of clinical programs and services, according to the signed agreement.
FSU is poised to be at the forefront of what has been heralded as the second quantum revolution. Our significant investments will accelerate discovery in this exciting area of critical national and global importance. #WorldQuantumDayhttps://t.co/f46ddJTjCd
— FSU President Richard McCullough (@PresMcCullough) April 14, 2024
Florida State University’s Board of Trustees approved a $2.62 billion operating budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year — the largest amount in the university’s history.
The record-breaking budget is an increase of 11% from last year, where the annual budget was $2.36 billion and a 9% increase from the year prior’s $2.17 budget.
New buildings will change campus skyline
Regarding capital projects in this year’s budget, some of the highlights include a $40 million allocation for the College of Business’ Legacy Hall that broke ground in October, $35 million for a new Interdisciplinary Research & Commercialization Building and $25 million for FSU’s Academic Health Center that is in the works along with Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.
On the athletic side of things, $20 million from the budget will be used for the Dunlap Football Operations Facility, $15 million will go toward Doak Campbell Stadium seating enhancements and $10 million will be for the stadium’s Blueprint Project to make accessibility and safety repairs to the 71-year-old Doak Campbell Stadium. The ongoing initiative has led to concerns and debates about how Blueprint sales tax dollars should be spent.
Similarly, nine other universities have met the goal this year while most of them also have decreasing rates in the metrics category compared to 2022.
But the same status of being above the 30% threshold cannot be said for FSU and the University of Florida, both of which have not met the minimum access rate requirement for the past six years in a row.
This year, FSU’s access rate is 26% from 26.3% in 2022 while UF’s score is 23.4% from 24.7% last year.
Despite the unwanted continuous trend in the particular category, both FSU and UF remain in the top three scoring universities with the highest number of points this year.
FSU has 94 points — an increase from its score of 90 last year — while UF and USF are tied at 90 points and Florida International University holds the highest score with 95 points.
In addition, FSU will receive $57.5 million in state funding, $48.5 million in institutional funding and an extra $559,930 as a result of being in the top-three realm for a total of $106.7 million.
Here are the metric scores, university investments and state allocations for all 12 universities:
The FSU Board of Trustees approved the university's $2.62 billion operating budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year during their regular meeting Thursday, June 15, 2023. It is the largest operating budget in university history.
Florida State University will receive about $109 million in new recurring operational support along with new funding for several capital projects from the Florida Legislature in the upcoming fiscal year, allowing FSU to further its mission as one of the top public universities in the nation.
The Florida Legislature approved the 2023-2024 state budget in early May, and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the spending plan on Thursday morning. Separately on Thursday, the Florida State University Board of Trustees approved the largest operating budget in university history during their regularly scheduled June meeting.
“Florida State University is laser-focused on reaching our strategic goals — expanding our research portfolio, recruiting and retaining excellent faculty, staff and graduate students, transforming health care in North Florida and continuing to rise in the national rankings,” said President Richard McCullough. “This state funding will be critical as we continue to make investments to advance our top priorities. We are grateful to the Florida Legislature and Gov. DeSantis for recognizing the amazing work happening across our university and the outstanding return-on-investment that FSU provides to our students, the people of Florida and our nation.”
FSU will receive $60.7 million in new recurring operational enhancement funding that it plans to invest in bolstering research and academic excellence, ensuring student success and expanding its FSU Health initiative as it aims to transform health care in North Florida and beyond.
In addition, the state appropriated $100 million in new recurring Preeminence funding, which will be split equally between FSU and Florida’s other preeminent universities. The Legislature also increased State University System Performance-based funding for the first time since 2018, and FSU is estimated to receive an additional $15 million over the current year’s total.
The new state budget also includes:
$20 million (NR) in operational enhancement for National High Magnetic Field Laboratory research
$8 million (NR) for the Florida Institute for Governance and Civics (formerly Institute of Politics)
$1 million (NR) for the Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases
$1 million (NR) for the College of Law Elections Program
The state funded several of FSU’s capital appropriation requests, highlighted by $40 million to renovate and redesign research space in the Dittmer Chemistry Lab Building; $30 million toward demolition and relocation of FSU’s 45-year-old maintenance complex; and $10 million in funding toward planning and initial construction of the Veterans Legacy Complex, a project that will better address the unique veteran and military students’ special needs.
The Legislature also appropriated $20 million in funding for planning and construction of new space for FAMU-FSU College of Engineering Building C, which is needed to accommodate the projected growth of the college’s enrollment and research expansion.
The university also received $1.5 million for planning and construction of a building that will serve as the cornerstone of an innovative FSU Arts District. The building will provide high-quality space for multiple colleges and departments and create a centralized source of cultural and economic growth for the community.
Other capital outlay projects that received funding were $4 million for FSU Health – Panama City and $2.3 million for Kellogg Research Building renovations.
“The Governor, Speaker Paul Renner and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo have put a record amount of funding into the State University System this year and have clearly stated their commitment to higher education in Florida,” said FSU Board of Trustees Chair Peter Collins. “They have also clearly shown their commitment to Florida State University continuing to be one of the top public universities in the country. The Board of Trustees and President McCullough are aligned on the university’s priorities, and we are looking forward to the positive changes that this new funding will allow.”
BOT Approves Largest Operating Budget in FSU History
Also on Thursday, the Florida State University Board of Trustees approved the university operating budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year during their June meeting.
This year’s operating budget of $2.62 billion is an overall increase of 11%.
While the operating budget is the largest in university history, Florida State continues to be ranked as one of the most affordable and highest-quality institutions in the nation. The cost of FSU’s tuition has remained unchanged for the past 10 years, and the majority of full-time undergraduates — 87% in the academic year 2021-2022 — receive some form of non-loan student financial aid.
The operating budget includes new state funding for operational enhancements that FSU plans to invest in increasing research and academic excellence, ensuring student success and expanding its FSU Health initiative as it aims to transform health care in North Florida and beyond.
The 2023-2024 Annual Operating Budget, estimated to be larger than that of 86 foreign countries, includes allocations for the College of Business’ Legacy Hall, a new Interdisciplinary Research and Commercialization Building, a new Academic Health Center, Athletic Enhancements, Research Facility Upgrades, and a new Football Operations Facility.
The university’s operating budget injects an estimated $13.7 billion into the local and state economies annually, according to the FSU Center for Economic Forecasting and Analysis. That estimate includes about $4.3 billion in direct revenue or sales and over $178 million in spending by non-resident students, as well as $9.2 billion in lifetime earnings (in 2023 dollars) by recent (FY19-20) FSU graduates, based on the latest draft of the center’s annual report.
The bottom line on the record state budget Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Thursday makes clear state government and higher education drive Tallahassee’s economy.
The $116 billion state spending plan includes nearly a billion dollars of economic activity for Leon County's 300,000 residents.
The 5% pay raise effective July 1 for the 22,000 state workers in Leon, Gadsden, and Wakulla counties increases the Capital region’s income by more than $43 million – comparable to the economic impact of a year's worth of attendance at Florida State University’s football, basketball, baseball and softball games.
Florida State University's plans for a $4 million hydrogen research center was rejected by DeSantis.
Florida State University
$35,359,083 College of Medicine Alzheimer and dementia research
$30,000,000 Demolition of Mendenhall and site preparation for an academic building
$8,000,000 Institute of Politics to create a statewide history program
$2,126,853 Nursing education
$1,467,667 Financial aid
$1,450,000 Multidisiplinary Educational Services Center
$1,386,508 Autism Center at the College of Medicine
$1,000,000 College of Law Election Law Program
$1,000,000 Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases
$824,574 Education enhancement College of Medicine
$543,353,819 Education Enhancement Trust Fund grant
$525,000 Child Medical Services Behavioral health
$500,000 Student Veterans Center
$150,000 Center for Rare Earths within the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Florida State University — Maybe they’ve got the University of Florida’s number on the gridiron, but they keep finding ways to lose what should be considered a home game — “Choke at the Capitol,” anyone? After landing more funding than UF for probably the first time ever last year, the follow-up effort fizzled as the resurgent Gators lobbying team bounced back this year and fed into their little-brother complex with massive wins in the budget. There is only one Flagship University. All in all, lawmakers approved around $350 million in new funding for the Gators and around $175 million for FSU — it’s basically a 2-to-1 chomping ratio. Go ahead and say it: “It’s Great to be a Florida Gator.”
