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Sanford Burnham To Give $12.3 Million Back To Florida

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
OpenSecrets.org
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The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Sanford Burnham will return millions of dollars to the state after failing to meet requirements laid out in an incentive deal.

The governor’s office says Florida will get $12.3 million dollars.

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity wrote the non-profit scientific research group in 2016 demanding more than $77 million be returned. But Sanford Burnham argued it only had to pay back money it hadn’t spent.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush put the $360 million incentive package together to lure Sanford Burnham to Orlando.

Officials are deciding if the University of Central Florida or other groups should take over the space left behind.

Catherine Welch is news director at Rhode Island Public Radio. Before her move to Rhode Island in 2010, Catherine was news director at WHQR in Wilmington, NC. She was also news director at KBIA in Columbia, MO where she was a faculty member at the University Of Missouri School Of Journalism. Catherine has won several regional Edward R. Murrow awards and awards from the Public Radio News Directors Inc., New England AP, North Carolina Press Association, Missouri Press Association, and Missouri Broadcasters Association.