State will limit public spending

Florida universities and colleges will be forbidden from spending taxpayer dollars on foundation salaries under new rules being phased in by lawmakers.

Starting July 1, 2022, the school foundations will be prohibited from using public funds on those positions. Universities are currently spending about $53 million to support foundation personnel, while state colleges are spending $9.9 million.

University of Central Florida currently spends about $10 million annually on salaries for employees at its foundation, which is the school’s fundraising arm and is in the middle of a $500 million campaign.

“At least it gives us five years to prepare for it,” UCF lobbyist Dan Holsenbeck said. “If it’s the law, you have to accept it and find a way to do it.”

In addition, the bill would immediately prohibit the use of state money for travel by the organizations and would require disclosure of all expenditures involving public funds and the disclosure of all travel expenditures involving private funds.

The House originally originally sought a fuller disclosure of all expenditures and activity by the foundations, with the exception of the identities of private donors.

“Is it where we wanted to go? We’d like to go even further,” House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, told reporters late last week. “But to move that along to the extent that we have and to have that accountability for the first time is something that’s remarkable.”

In March, state lawmakers grilled Florida school officials on what they considered extravagant spending on travel expenses and employees’ salaries.

“The system’s almost run wild,” said state Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, who chaired the committee, at the time.

The foundation language is part of a broader highereducation bill (SB 374) linked to a nearly $83 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The bill includes an array of major policy changes for the 12 state universities and 28 state colleges.

The bill would require universities to offer block tuition, where students pay a flat fee per semester rather than a credit-hour charge, by the fall of 2018.

It would create a 13-member Board of Community Colleges to oversee the state college system, which is now under the Board of Education.

In addition, the legislation would cap enrollment for students pursuing four-year degrees at state colleges to no more than 15 percent of the total enrollment at each school.

Universities would be held to a new performance standard, measuring the schools on their ability to graduate students in four years, rather than the current six-year standard.