Gov. Bush must ensure the excitement over luring Scripps Research Institute to Florida doesn't override prudence in doing so.
Published October 12, 2003
The prospect of bringing Scripps Research Institute, the world's largest biomedical research facility, to Florida is nothing short of exhilarating. It could bring renowned academicians and researchers, employ a highly skilled workforce of as many as 2,800 people, and serve as a nucleus for a multitude of related biotech companies. It is precisely the kind of intellectual industry that can strengthen and diversify the state economy, and can, as Gov. Jeb Bush noted, "bring Florida into the forefront in this lifesaving research."
Those are all reasons to be giddy and optimistic, but also to be cautious. The incentive plan that Bush is asking the Legislature to approve in a special session to begin in just eight days is as breathtaking as the opportunity itself. The money he wants to put up, $310-million, is more than the state has spent on its three largest business grant programs combined since they were created nine years ago. He would also put the state in the position of buying new jobs - paying the salaries of Scripps researchers for the first eight years, as a form of seed money, which is unprecedented. And Palm Beach County, where the institute would be located, will be expected to spend $100-million for land and buildings.
The economic payoff could be enormous, which is why governments often use public money to attract businesses. But the details do matter. For example, how will the state make sure that researchers will continue their work once the state is no longer paying their salaries? The source of the money is also in question. Bush wants to tap into the federal economic stimulus package that provided Florida with $948-million, but Congress wrote that half the money was to be used for Medicaid and the other half for only two purposes: "essential government services" and "costs to the state of complying with any federal intergovernmental mandate." "Congress intended for this money to deal with the state fiscal crisis, to help states fill holes and deliver essential government services," says Robert Zahradnik, policy analyst for the Washington-based Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. "This would violate the spirit and intent of what the fiscal relief was intended to provide."
That dilemma is easily resolved by using state money instead, and one would think that a governor who says the Scripps recruitment represents a "seminal moment in our state's history" would surely be willing to identify a new tax source to pay for it. But the problem is that Bush seems willing to spend only when he is not writing the check.
The governor must know that his call for a special session will again raise questions about his fiscal priorities. This will be the second time in two months he will ask lawmakers for an emergency appropriation, and both times he has refused to discuss the emergency budgetary shortfalls in public schools, community colleges and universities. In so doing, he moves prisons and new business to the front of the line, and schools to the back. Where does he think a research institute will find suitable talent if the university system is too impoverished to produce it?
The governor deserves credit for his enterprise in luring Scripps to build an institute in Florida. The job that remains for the Legislature is to make sure the deal is prudent.
