Florida’s legislature has approved the state’s largest school construction effort since 2010-11 budget year,with $731 million in spending, including $305 million in bonds.
The Public Education Capital Outlay (PECO) program, part of the $82 billion 2016-17 budget, will include the first significant debt financing in several years, and fund a diversity of school and university projects through the state.
These include, according to a leger.com story:
- $4.2 million for the Heiser Natural Sciences complex addition at New College of Florida.
- $8.98 million for the construction of a new library at State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota.
- $5 million for an applied research center at Florida Polytechnic University.
- $22.5 million for the Morsani College of Medicine at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
- $20 million for a downtown building for the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
- $13.8 million for an addition and renovation for the nuclear science building at the University of Florida, Tallahassee.
- $12 million for the Earth Ocean Atmospheric Sciences (EOAS) building at Florida State University.
- $6.5 million for the student affairs building at Florida A&M University.
- $7.28 million for the Levy Center at the College of Central Florida.
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The Levy Center
- $3.6 million for a student services-classroom building at Daytona State College.
The report says lawmakers approved a $713 million PECO program for the new budget year. “But Scott vetoed more than a half-dozen university and state college projects, totaling some $53 million, meaning the final PECO program for 2016-17 is in the range of $660 million,” the article said.
