In the dozens of trades going on between legislative leaders struggling to finalize a state budget, the House so far has been unwilling to move away from a demand seen as helping Gov. Ron DeSantis.
That’s politically strange, because in so many other areas, House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, is at odds with the term-limited governor.
But when it comes to trading the decades-old University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus to neighboring New College of Florida, the House is fully on board with the governor.
The Senate has repeatedly turned down the transfer in budget talks. With most of the roughly $116 billion budget expected to be settled by May 22, the fate of USF-New College should be decided soon.
And while money, debt and land are at stake, the people behind the proposed deal may be the most central part of whatever resolution emerges.
Trade may be more personal than policy driven
The House’s support appears more personal than policy driven.
Mat Bahl is Perez’s chief-of-staff, the fourth House speaker for whom he has served in this role – including Richard Corcoran, now the president of New College. DeSantis first installed Corcoran as the leader of the college, after the governor’s allies took command of the school in 2023 and began converting it to a conservative bastion.
Corcoran has said USF-Sarasota-Manatee is “move-in ready,” and could provide New College with needed dormitories. And Bahl’s relationship with Corcoran is seen by many analysts as keeping the idea afloat over Senate opposition.
The Senate President-designate, Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, has blocked making the transfer part of the Senate’s budget proposal. Many of the region’s leaders also have come out against the transfer to New College.
The House’s support also stands in sharp contrast to Perez’s many clashes with DeSantis.
They’ve fought over tax cuts, spending, immigration policy and vaccines. And just last week, the governor accused Perez of “not governing in the best interests of the people of the state of Florida.”
A strange alliance over New College of Florida
Still, in the New College tug-of-war, Perez is taking DeSantis’ side.
With DeSantis in his final months as governor, the state budget before lawmakers amounts to one of his last chances to put an enduring stamp on an institution he envisions as someday becoming a thought leader on the right.
The New College transformation, however, has not been an easy one.
With Corcoran earning close to $1.2 million in compensation leading the 900-student school, New College far outspends Florida’s other public universities.
At the same time, its outcomes for graduates is the worst, according to a report last year by the Florida task force called the Department of Government Efficiency.
New College spent almost $500,000 to produce a degree, three times what the nearest Florida public university did. And New College spent seven times what USF did to yield a graduate with a degree, DOGE found.
In one of the few public defenses of the transfer made during this spring’s legislative session, House higher education budget chair Demi Bussata, R-Miami, said the “geographic proximity” of USF to New College would allow for “more direct oversight, strategic planning, and responsiveness to regional needs as New College seeks.”
But New College’s takeover of USF-Sarasota-Manatee’s campus also would give it what it needs — land, buildings and the ability to grow enrollment.
Expansion may be only way to tamp-down sky-high spending
Such expansion may be the only way the school can ever reduce the disproportionate spending it’s been doing since Florida’s conservative governor marshalled its takeover.
New College has been rebuffed at efforts to acquire land owned by Sarasota International Airport and to take over the nearby Ringling Museum of Art, governed by Florida State University. It’s now also facing resistance to building a baseball stadium on land leased from the airport.
New College has been recruiting athletes, especially baseball players, as part of its push to hike enrollment and tamp down the school’s former countercultural reputation.
DeSantis’ allies have already wiped out gender studies programs and the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, while many former students have transferred out.
As part of the trade, New College also would be taking over $53 million of debt from USF-Sarasota-Manatee, which some have questioned as putting a new burden on the already financially struggling school favored by DeSantis.
During a budget exchange during the legislative session which ended in March, Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, asked Busatta, the higher ed budget chair about that shift.
“Knowing the inefficiency report about New College, do you have concerns about the college’s ability to manage that debt since they are already heavily subsidized by the state of Florida?” Eskamani asked.
Busatta said, “No, I don’t have concerns. And all of our public universities are subsidized by the state of Florida.”
John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@usatodayco.com or on X at @JKennedyReport.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: The people behind the plan to give part of USF to New College
Reporting by John Kennedy, Capital Bureau | USA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA / Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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