DeSantis cuts $75 million from USF environmental research facility

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A science research facility for USF St. Pete is up in the air after Gov. Ron DeSantis cut $3.1 billion out of the state’s budget.  

USF’s Environmental and Oceanographic Sciences Research and Teaching Facility seemed like a go until $75 million in state funding got the veto pen on Thursday.  

Alison Barlow, who heads up St. Pete’s Innovation District says the community was excited about dozens of high-paying jobs that would have gone in the building – and had both republican and democrat support when it passed the legislature.  

"I have no idea, why," Barlow told FOX 13. "Hopefully next year we’ll make it through the process." 

This wasn’t the only funding that was cut for Tampa Bay area projects.  

$35 million was cut for a youth sports complex in Odessa that could have been a spring training site for the Tampa Bay Rays. Also, $20 million was cut from a project to build a Moffitt Cancer Center in Pasco County.  

DeSantis blamed the line-item vetoes on the need to protect the state financially from a looming recession.