Florida Governor Rick Scott cut nearly $57 million from the state’s Health and Human Services budget. That cuts $9.25 million for biomedical research.
Scott’s red pen cut $3 million earmarked for the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in Lake Nona. Sanford-Burnham officials said the money was to fund the Florida Translational Research Program for another year.
Patrick Bartosch, a spokesman for Sanford-Burnham, said the program provides Florida-based scientists access to professionals and state-of-the-art technological resources for drug discovery. It's aimed at unmet medical needs, he said.
"The FTRP is an extremely successful program that has grown over three years, and researchers from universities and nonprofit institutes across the state have participated in it," Bartosch wrote in a statement to WMFE. "We are currently evaluating what the governor's veto means for the FTRP and how to proceed."
In his veto note, the governor said the money was allocated in a non-competitive manner, and didn’t provide safeguards on taxpayer investments now. The governor says his health care budget was focused on access, quality and costs.
Another health care veto in Central Florida included $121,629 for a telemedicine program at the North Brevard Hospital District, which operates Parrish Medical Center in Titusville.
