TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The state is asking a Leon County circuit judge to dismiss a case alleging the state has failed to match $460 million in private donations to universities and state colleges that were made under Florida's matching-gift laws.
University of Florida graduates and Florida State University donors filed separate class-action lawsuits, which were consolidated, seeking to force the state to come up with $600 million in matching funds for the gifts.
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In a motion filed Wednesday, lawyers for the state said the matching-gift laws are subject to annual budget decisions by the Legislature and it would violate the constitutional separation of powers if the judiciary ordered lawmakers to spend the money.
“As with all other funding programs the Legislature has created, the statutes create programs but they do not appropriate any state funds for those programs; the programs are subject to future appropriations,” the motion said.
Noting the “firm separation” of constitutional authority among the legislative, executive and judicial branches, the motion added: “Because plaintiffs' requested relief would violate the separation of powers, it cannot be granted.”
The state's motion also attacked an alternate request for relief that asks the court to issue an order requiring the executive branch, including the governor, to make a request to the Legislature for the matching funds.
“But they lack standing to pursue this alternate relief as it cannot remedy any harm they allegedly have suffered; a budget request, after all, is only a request,” the motion said.
University of Florida alumni Ryan and Alexis Geffin filed a lawsuit in July, alleging their undergraduate education was harmed because matching funds weren't provided for construction projects at the school.
The programs cited by the lawsuit included two construction-related funds, the Alec P. Courtelis University Facility Enhancement Challenge Grant Program and the Florida College System Institution Capital Facilities Matching Program, as well as the Dr. Philip Benjamin Matching Grant Program and the University Major Gifts Program.
A second lawsuit was filed by two Florida State University law- school graduates, Tommy Warren, a former FSU football player, and his wife, Kathleen Villacorta. The suit cited their $100,000 donation to the FSU law school for a scholarship fund that was never matched by the state and their $100,000 donation for a scholarship program for students studying marine conservation that was also never matched by the state.
Under a 2011 law, the programs cannot be restarted until a backlog of $200 million in donations for the Courtelis program as well as the other three matching-grant programs have been matched.