TaxWatch ignores favoritism in BOG budgeting process

For the third time in two years, TaxWatch is trying to torpedo a critically important project associated with FAMU’s College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The private research institute wants Gov. Charlie Crist to veto an $8.5M dollar line item designated for FAMU’s Crestview Education Center. It claims the project is a "turkey" because it was not approved by the Board of Governors.

In 2008, TaxWatch also opposed the $2.5M the legislature appropriated to start the Crestview expansion project and $2M to plan Pharmacy Phase II, citing the same reason.

The BOG chose not to include Pharmacy Phase II in its 2008-2009 budget request despite the fact that it is critical to FAMU Pharmacy’s accreditation. That BOG action came after Castell Bryant, a former BOG member and FAMU interim president, refused to let the pharmacy faculty members spend funds that were supposed to go to planning Phase II.

Had the legislature and governor not re-authorized the Phase II planning money in 2008-2009, pharmacy would be in serious jeopardy of failing to meet the laboratory and classroom space requirements for its re-accreditation process this year.

Interestingly, the BOG chose to support the creation of a brand new pharmacy school at the University of South Florida during the same year (2008) it opted against backing the Phase II planning money that FAMU Pharmacy needed to avoid having its accreditation revoked.

TaxWatch did not seem to care. It asked Crist to veto the Phase II planning money anyway.

Now, TaxWatch wants Crist to strike down the remaining money needed to help FAMU Pharmacy expand in to Crestview. This comes in the wake of a dire pharmacist shortage throughout the state.

“This is offensive,” said Sen. Durell Peaden, who championed the Crestview project. “We need to do more, and TaxWatch just looks at this from a simplistic point of view.”

TaxWatch has said absolutely nothing about the signs of political favoritism in the “official” budget request and academic program authorization processes led by the BOG. This year, the BOG asked the legislature to give the green light to a new medical at Florida Atlantic University, which Chancellor Frank Brogan recently led as president. The FAU medical school will soon need millions more in recurring taxpayer dollars.

Brogan, who is widely expected to become a Republican candidate for governor in the near future, appears to be taking care of voters and political contributors he will need in the Boca Raton area. It is no surprise that FAMU, whose supporters are mostly in the Democratic Party, is not a priority for him.

TaxWatch needs to pull its head out the sand and realize that the BOG is not an “objective” group. Its budgetary process is every bit as political as the legislature’s. The bottom line is that there is a shortage of pharmacists in Florida and FAMU’s Crestview Education Center will lead the way in addressing that problem, particularly for rural Floridians.

Contact the Governor

All FAMUans should contact Gov. Crist today and ask him to approve the FAMU construction items in the 2010-2011 budget ---$23 million for Pharmacy Phase II, $4.2 million for the College of Engineering, and the $8.5 million for the Crestview Education Center.