JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Florida House and Senate budgets are $1.4 billion apart, and critical funding for two Northeast Florida museums is caught in the mix.
Each chamber is proposing at least a million dollars towards one museum, but not the other.
The Senate budget includes $1million for the planned Florida Museum of Black History in West Augustine, but the House budget doesn’t include a single penny for the project.
“I think there’s a lot of reason for the House to move because there are people who are waiting for this to happen. They’ve been waiting for decades,” said Howard Holley, Board Chair of the Foundation for the Museum of Black History.
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Holley argued that the funding and accompanying legislation that codifies West Augustine as the museum’s future home and establishes the board tasked with overseeing the museum’s construction are both desperately needed to keep the project on track.
The Senate has already approved the bill, but the House hasn’t even given it a hearing.
Howard said that until it passes, finding private dollars for the project will be difficult.
“It’s hard to go out to a corporation and say, give us a donation, a capital donation to support building the museum, when the legislature hasn’t voted and confirmed that it will be here,” said Holley.
State Senator Tom Leek (R-Ormond Beach), who is sponsoring the bill establishing the museum board and submitted the funding request, noted it’s early in the budget process and he’s confident everything “will work out”.
On the flip side, the Florida House budget earmarks $1.25 million for the new Jacksonville Museum of Science and History.
The budget request explains that the funds “will ensure the uninterrupted design and construction” and move the project into the final design and construction phase.
The Senate, on the other hand, includes no funding for MOSH in its budget.
Last month, city leaders criticized a proposal that would have reduced on-site parking at the new MOSH from 75 to 30 spaces.
At the time, museum leaders explained the change would save $5 million, as the museum was still tens of millions short of its funding goal for the project that could exceed $140 million.
Action News Jax reached out to MOSH asking whether construction plans would be impacted if the state money doesn’t come through, but has not heard back.
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