Moffitt expansion plan gains steam

Money for a long-proposed expansion of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center could come in the form of a new jobs bill created last week in Tallahassee.

It's been three years since local legislators first proposed using existing cigarette taxes to build a clinical and research facility near the burgeoning Tampa campus. Leaders say it would address demand at the comprehensive National Cancer Institute center, one of just 50 in the United States.

"This campus is Moffitt's future," said Jamie Wilson, Moffitt's vice president of government relations.

But shoveling money toward health care isn't politically popular lately, and this year Moffitt revised its pitch to focus on the economics of expansion. The Tampa Chamber of Commerce and Moffitt launched a sophisticated website — jobsforthecure.com — to highlight the potential 3,000 construction jobs and more than 1,000 permanent health care jobs.

The effort appears to have paid off, as Moffitt's expansion plans were added last week to an economic incentive package created by the House Finance and Tax Committee. There's still no similar companion bill in the Senate, but Wilson said he is cautiously optimistic.

"This puts us way ahead of where we were last year, and we're appreciative," Wilson said.

The jobs bill takes in a hodgepodge of interests. The state's television and film industry, airplane mechanics and Moffitt's building plans are lumped in together, each with its own source of funding. Wilson said this is a way to get started.

"They are trying to help us, incrementally," he said. "This isn't going to get it all done now … but we understand the fiscal restraints on the state right now."

Money for the construction doesn't involve a new tax; Moffitt is asking for a percentage of the existing $1.33 per-pack cigarette charge. Most of that money now goes into a general fund for state health-related projects.

Such requests are how Moffitt financed many previous construction projects on its 17-acre site on the University of South Florida campus.

In 2011, the taxes translated to $5.5 million for Moffitt. The economic incentive package now being considered would nearly double that amount, Wilson said.

Moffitt, one of the three busiest cancer centers in the nation, reported more than $700 million in revenue in 2010, a small part of which comes from the state.

Medicaid reimbursements supplement some patient care, and biomedical research is backed by $5 million from cigarette tax revenues. Another $9.6 million comes from the State University System to train more than 1,000 medical students a year.

If the jobs plan makes it into the state budget, Wilson said, construction can start immediately. The land for the expansion was purchased in 2006 with a combination of support from the state and local governments. It's on a 25-acre parcel on McKinley Drive, across from the USF campus.

A detailed video at jobsforthecure.org shows extensive architectural renderings and plans for the multi-building complex.

Wilson said whether the money for construction comes now or later is irrelevant. It eventually will happen, he said.

"In order to facilitate the needs of future cancer patients, we have to expand," he said.