State Sen. Greg Evers, R-Baker, is working to help FAMU’s Crestview Education Center open as planned in Fall 2012 despite Gov. Rick Scott’s decision to veto the campus’ $1.5M funding appropriation.“Some money will be transferred to FAMU that will cover that $1.5 million for this year and funds will be put back in as a recurring expense for next year,” Baker told the Crestview Bulletin. “So it will not hold up the project; that's the bottom line.”
Baker succeeded Sen. Durell Peaden, R-Crestview, in the Florida Senate District Two seat back in 2010. Peaden steered a total of $11M into FAMU’s budget during the 2009 and 2010 legislative sessions in order to cover start-up costs such as facility renovations for the Crestview Education Center.
The transfer of $1.5M will ensure that Florida taxpayers receive a return on the millions they have already invested into satellite campus. The money is required to cover operational expenses such as salaries, utilities, and equipment.
Scott took away the center’s operating budget as part of $142.7M in line item vetoes he made to the 2012-2013 budget. That money will now enter the state’s reserves. The governor said he slashed the appropriations in the interest of creating jobs and curbing wasteful spending.
The veto actually jeopardized Okaloosa County’s efforts to use FAMU’s satellite campus to attract more job creators to the community. The Okaloosa County Economic Development Council is closing in on a deal in “Project Pill,” which aims to bring a Southern Pharmaceutical manufacturing plant to Crestview. Southern Pharmaceutical wants to establish a partnership and internship program with FAMU’s Crestview Education Center. Its new plant would create 120 permanent jobs with high salaries.
Local officials say that landing the plant could help transform Crestview in a pharmaceutical manufacturing city because companies in that industry frequently cluster together in areas that offer resources they can share.
“If we get that pill factory, they’re going to be knocking down our doors to bring others,” Okaloosa County Commissioner Wayne Harris said.