The $500,000 for a new building squeaks past all the budget crunchers to await the governor's pen: vetoing or signing.
By KELLEY BENHAM
Published May 29, 2003
LARGO - City leaders are watching Gov. Jeb Bush, quietly but hopefully, to see whether $500,000 of state money for the new library makes it across his desk alive.
The grant, the subject of yearning and controversy in the city for two years, survived the legislative budget process this week. But now it has to elude Bush's veto pen.
"Until he signs it, it's a lot of possibilities and potentialities, but not much more," City Manager Steven Stanton said.
He won't celebrate, or even speculate, about the likelihood of actually getting the money to help build the 90,000-square-foot building. He doesn't want to talk about it, draw attention to it or do anything to jeopardize it.
"Until the process is over," he said, "it's all make-believe."
The city wants the grant so bad it spent $50,000 this year and the same amount last year to hire a lobbyist, former city Commissioner and Secretary of State Sandra Mortham. That expenditure drew critics who said the price was too high and Mortham could not deliver.
Mortham is more comfortable with the prognosis than Stanton is.
"It should be fine," she said. The money was included in the governor's original budget proposal, she said. "It's now squarely in his court."
The budget takes effect July 1. Bush has until June 11 to approve, change or reject it.
Last year, the city found itself in a similar situation and lost. The money made it into the legislative budget only to die by a Bush veto. That money came from a different source than this year's grant, Mortham said.
The construction grant is part of the Department of State's Division of Library and Information Services budget. It is a $3.1-million line item that can be dispersed in grants of up to $500,000, Mortham said, and Largo is fourth on the priority list.
The city hopes to raise $1-million in grants toward the cost of the $21-million library. It is already about halfway there, with $360,000 in federal money and $200,000 from the Pinellas County Library Cooperative. It also hopes to raise about $2-million in private donations.
The rest of the money will come from borrowing against the Penny for Pinellas tax, expected to generate about $50-million for construction over the next five years.
