Ask almost any university or college president what their biggest concern is going into next legislative session and the short, but probably surprising, answer is PECO.
The acronym stands for Public Education Capital Outlay. It is the major funding source for new classrooms at public schools, from elementary, middle and high schools all the way to top-tier research universities.
But the spigot that fills the PECO fund has run dry in recent years, thanks to less revenue from taxes on new electricity use and landline phones. It also has become the victim of politics, with individual projects from each college or university heavily lobbied, only to fall victim to the governor's veto pen.
"It is in peril," said State University System Chancellor Frank Brogan at a recent Board of Governors meeting. "There is one source of revenue and we're in trouble."
As a result, universities and colleges are pushing for an overhaul of how classroom building projects are funded in the hopes that they can establish a more predictable way of paying for building and maintenance.
This year, the Legislature made $303 million available, primarily through PECO funds, to cover new classroom construction and maintenance at public schools, Florida's 28 colleges and 11 state universities.
Typically, many of the dollars given to universities and colleges through PECO are from bond proceeds, which are later repaid. This fiscal year, for instance, Florida is paying $1 billion just in bond repayments.
But citing concern about the state taking on too much debt, Gov. Rick Scott vetoed $164 million of these projects, which left $139 million to use for construction and maintenance, a mere drop in the bucket, university and college officials say. By comparison, in the 2006-07 fiscal year, there was $1.8 billion available for construction projects.
The result is that universities and colleges say they don't have enough classroom space to meet the demands of an ever-increasing student body. To cope, they're cramming students into conference rooms, relying on night classes and online courses, and even portable classrooms.
Universities are not required to use only PECO to fund classrooms or maintenance of older buildings, but they say it's difficult to pay for the badly needed renovations and new classrooms without it.
"We need these PECO funds desperately," said Chris Kinsley, director of finance and facilities for the State University System during a presentation to the Board of Governors. He said it is "easy for the general public to overlook," because of other construction projects, such as parking garages and new dorms.
"In terms of education space, PECO is all we really have. There is not another source," he said.
Even just paying for basic building maintenance is becoming difficult, university officials say.
"Many routine maintenance items are forgone," said Ken Jessell, the chief financial officer for Florida International University. "When it comes time to put food on the table, or fix the leaky gutter or roof, you put food on the table first and the other things will wait."
He warned the lack of attention to infrastructure could be catastrophic.
This recent strain has led many colleges and universities to question whether the state needs to come up with a new system for funding classroom construction -- perhaps one that would leave the politics out of the process.
At a recent meeting of college presidents, Bill Law, president of St. Petersburg College, suggested moving toward funding based on a strict formula or even statewide bond referendums.
"The fact of the matter is, we look over and see the K-12 system," Law said, noting that though they have seen their share of budget cuts, the process for receiving money for construction is based on a formula. "They appear to have a system that keeps it from getting more politicized," he said.
Colleges and universities develop priority lists of projects they use to lobby legislators to include in the budget.
"It's subject to a lot of legislative whim," Law said. "It's really hard to know who gets what."
Colleges were hit hard by Scott's vetoes this year. They started out with $103 million to spend on construction, renovations and repairs, and ended up with $19 million just for repairs.
"The vetoes leave everybody feeling more confused and anxious," Law said, though he partially faults the colleges for not pitching themselves better. "I'm not sure we have done as good of a job as we could making people understand how desperate this need is."
Law said colleges can collect a capital improvement fee to pay for new construction but that it doesn't "produce anywhere near enough money to meet capital needs."
At St. Petersburg College, Law said he had to bring in portable classrooms for the Seminole County campus.
Besides concerns about safety, university and college officials say they worry that students will begin to leave Florida's public colleges and universities for gleaming campuses in other states.
Brogan said he hopes an interim study by the Senate will help prod lawmakers toward reforms.
Universities and colleges are also optimistically eyeing the revenue estimate due out soon for PECO in the next fiscal year. Best-case scenario would be money for maintenance and the completion of existing projects.
"It is triage, in triage you take the bleeders first," Brogan said. "I love new buildings, they are great, but that issue of repairs and maintenance, that is our bleeders."
