In just an hour, the county pledges $60-million more to the biomedical deal than was expected. But concerns remain.
By STEVE BOUSQUET and ALISA ULFERTS
Published October 15, 2003
WEST PALM BEACH - With remarkable speed, Palm Beach County demonstrated Tuesday just how much it wants to attract a respected biomedical research institute.
In about an hour, commissioners pledged $200-million for land, labs and offices to create a Florida base for the California-based Scripps Research Institute. That's significantly more than the $140-million Gov. Jeb Bush expected the county to contribute to a deal made public just last week.
"This is a legacy project for the state of Florida," said Larry Pelton, president of Palm Beach County's Business Development Board. "I haven't heard of opposition to this. It captures the imagination of us all."
But the Scripps deal faces much tougher scrutiny in Tallahassee, where Bush has called the Legislature into special session next week to consider spending $310-million in federal economic stimulus money on the project. He also wants to earmark $190-million as a "mega-fund" to lure more companies to Florida.
Senate President Jim King sent a nine-page letter to Bush Tuesday filled with dozens of questions about the Scripps deal, the economic assumptions used to estimate thousands of jobs it would create and the use of the "mega-fund" money.
Among the Jacksonville Republican's questions: Who gets the money? How will it be spent? What conditions will be attached? What is Scripps' environmental record? How would Scripps improve Florida public schools? Why isn't Scripps investing its own money?
"Personally, I would feel much better about this whole situation were Scripps to have come into the project with a significant amount of their own money invested," King wrote. "Many folks want to see more guarantees, more assurances."
Earlier Tuesday, Bush said such questions would be answered.
"I understand that there are well-intended questions, and we'll answer them," he said. "I'm confident we'll be able to give people a sense of the magnitude of the importance for our state."
Bush shed some light on two issues. He said he is confident the federal money, which federal law says can only be used for essential government services, can be used for the Scripps package. Scripps would use the money for technology and to pay the salaries of employees for up to eight years, among other things.
Scripps would not get the state money all at once. Bush expects the Legislature to create a state panel that would disburse the money to the institute as outlined in a contract with the state.
And Scripps and Bush officials suggested in Orlando Tuesday the state might be guaranteed a portion of royalties from Scripps inventions in Florida.
Little skepticism greeted Scripps or the Bush administration in Palm Beach County.
A few critical voices were all but lost in the euphoria over Scripps' potential to be a magnet to draw to Palm Beach County other high-tech companies, just as it has in La Jolla, Calif.
The county's commitment came after a whirlwind courtship that included briefings by Scripps' team with individual commissioners and phone calls and meetings with Bush.
Scripps officials visited Palm Beach three weeks ago. It chose the county over Orlando for an expansion that's projected to create thousands of high-paying jobs.
"We've been looking for the clean, environmentally friendly industry that can help diversify our economic base," said Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty, who made the motion to spend $200-million. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity we don't want to blow. Ninety-nine percent of the places on the planet never get this opportunity."
Palm Beach will renovate a building as a temporary home for Scripps by next summer. It will build two buildings on property the county will buy. The site, to be chosen by Scripps, is north of West Palm Beach and west of Interstate 95 and remains secret.
The county will buy 500 acres, 100 for Scripps and 400 for affiliated research companies. Commissioners plan to borrow the money, using revenue bonds backed by future sales tax collections and fees.
The county's pledge came at a special meeting with barely one page of written explanation. Two Scripps representatives, executive vice president Arnold LaGuardia and Steve Kay, a professor of cell biology, spoke expansively of the institute's potential as a magnet for research. They talked of alliances with universities and of developing drugs to tackle heart disease, obesity and diabetes.
"We will recruit the brightest and best," Kay told commissioners.
Commissioner Addie Greene cast the lone vote against the project. She complained she never received a private briefing from Scripps. "Asking for $140-million for 540 jobs is insulting to me," she said, referring to the number of jobs expected to be created in the first seven years.
A parade of elected officials and business leaders, led by state Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, endorsed the plan. The developer of a research park in Jupiter on the county's northern fringe promised $1-million if Scripps chooses his site.
The one citizen who questioned the project, Cynthia Plockelman of West Palm Beach, said the venture is cloaked in too much secrecy. She also worried the rapid pace of such a project could skirt environmental rules. "I don't think we have much detail at all," Plockelman told commissioners. "I'm kind of appalled at the lack of sunshine that's been over this. I feel we're being rushed."
Meanwhile, Scripps and Bush officials are selling the expansion package throughout Florida. Scripps, established in 1924 through a gift from philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, employs 2,900 people in La Jolla and is the largest institute funded by the National Institutes of Health. It is the home of three Nobel laureates.
At a meeting Tuesday in Orlando, leaders from Central Florida's business, research, education and economic development communities learned partnerships across the state would follow the arrival of Scripps in Palm Beach County.
The roadshow, a joint production between Scripps and the state's Office of Tourism, Trade, and Economic Development, continues today in Tampa and features stops in Gainesville, Jacksonville and Pensacola.
- Times researcher Kitty Bennett, the Associated Press and Knight Ridder Newspapers contributed to this report.
