The incoming speaker for the Florida House said Wednesday he intends to hold Sanford Burnham Institute accountable for failing to create jobs it promised in order to get government funding.
Rep. Richard Corcoran described the $350 million of state, city, county and other local incentives spent a decade ago to lure California-based Sanford Burnham to open a center in Orlando as “reckless contractual obligations of taxpayer money.”
“Right now I have our legal and our legislative staffs looking at any possible remedy under the existing contract,” said the Land O’Lakes Republican, who is set to oversee the House starting in the 2017 legislative session. “My hope is that we find a way for these companies to understand that we will zealously protect taxpayer dollars and we will zealously go after those who abuse those funds.”
Sanford Burnham officials were not available for comment Wednesday.
By June of this year, the state had awarded Sanford Burnham 99 percent of the $155 million it pledged in 2006. The institute had created 78 percent of the 303 relatively high-paying jobs it promised by June, according to the state Department of Economic Opportunity.
Average salaries have met the goals of being at least 30 percent higher than average Orlando wages, which were $46,965 at the time of the 2006 agreement. But pay has been declining, with average salaries dropping from $73,978 to $63,043 during a recent three-year period, reports show.
Corcoran’s push to reclaim at least part of the state’s investment comes the day after the University of Florida said it would not proceed with plans to take over the institute’s financially troubled operations in Orlando.
Even without UF at the Sanford Burnham center, Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs said Wednesday she expected Medical City “to grow and thrive as a premier location for medical care, research and education.”
One of the premier benefactors of government incentives in Central Florida, Sanford Burnham’s Orlando operations have been losing money in recent years. Records show the operations in Orlando’s Medical City fall short by at least $10 million annually. For the 40-year-old research center based in La Jolla, Calif., research funding has proven a challenge. The institution’s overall federal research funding has declined steadily from $112 million in 2012 to $98 million in 2015, records show.
In hopes of reaching a healthy financial outlook, the institute had been working for about a year with UF on a plan for the university to take over its Orlando operations. This week, though, those plans were officially thwarted as it became clear the state and local governments would have a say in the matter.
The university this week said it was still open to be helpful in the matter; “However, it is unclear how UF can help in a timely manner, given the likely need for legislative approval. As such, UF is unable to proceed at this time.”
It’s unclear what will happen with Sanford Burnham’s research and operations.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer released a statement Thursday saying the institute has played a critical role in the success of Medical City and helped diversify the economy.
“It is unfortunate that a deal between UF and Sanford Burnham could not be finalized,” the statement read. “The City remains committed to working with Sanford Burnham and our partners on a viable path forward that ensures the important research done there continues.”
In the past, Sanford Burnham leaders said the group came to Florida not only to create jobs, but also to help launch a medical research cluster in Lake Nona and has been successful attracting related endeavors.
The institute has collaborations with several pharmaceutical companies, including Japanese company Takeda. It also formed the Translational Research Institute with Florida Hospital, an initiative that bridged bench research to patient care. And it helped cultivate a spin-off company, micro-gRx, which develops a “lab on a chip,” allowing scientists to study live human cells in space.
On Wednesday, Jacobs said Lake Nona’s Medical is “is hailed as an innovative center of learning, medical excellence and collaboration.”
Corcoran declined to specify the details of what he intends to convey to Sanford Burnham officials: “But I intend to make it very clear to Sanford Burnham what they have done and make it clear we’re not done fighting.”
A divide over economic incentives has been brewing between the Governor’s Office and some members of the Legislature for months. Examples of unmet promises include Sanford Burnham and Digital Domain, which was a California-based, special-effects company that aimed to add operations in South Florida but went bankrupt in 2012. Earlier this year, the state recouped $5 million of the $20 million in incentives it awarded the video company’s South Florida operations.
Moving ahead during the next session, Corcoran said, new companies trying to locate in Florida will not see any incentives coming through the House. And existing companies can expect the state to guard any incentives they have awarded in the past, he added.
mshanklin@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5538 or nmiller@orlandosentinel.com
