Legislative update: May 16, 2026
New College’s future remains unclear as legislators head home after a week of the special budget session.
The major item that is still undecided: the transfer of the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus to New College of Florida. There are three moving pieces to this:
The transfer of the campus, i.e. the physical assets but not any of the programs or staff (language in HB 5601)
Debt coming with the transfer of the campus (also in HB 5601), which is estimated at $53 million
$22 million in recurring revenue being taken away from USF’s budget and added to New College’s budget (see this conference proviso)
Currently, the House wants all 3 of these items to pass, but the Senate has not agreed to any of them.
Background: the NCF budget in recent years
Since the July 2023 takeover, New College’s legislative operational funding has grown from $27 million per year to over $62 million. As you can see in the chart below, the vast majority of the new funding has been one time (non-recurring).
The base budget has grown by $10 million recurring, half of which is restricted to scholarships.
For the 2025-2026 academic year, New College received $25 million in one-time (non-recurring) funding, putting the total at ~$35 million more compared to the pre-takeover budget.
A concern is that Corcoran has generated recurring expenses (expensive athletic programs, full-ride scholarships for athletes, ballooning administrative costs, etc.) but with NON-recurring revenue, creating the risk that if legislative funding isn’t an ever-larger windfall, New College stands to be overextended with unsustainable expenses.
What is in the budget, right now?
With the caveat that many things could still change, we can look at the two budget positions, one from the House and one from the Senate, and look at how that would impact New College.
House position
The House would give New College the USF campus, the $53 million in debt, and $22 million recurring. This would keep New College at its recent funding legislative levels since the 2023 takeover (specifically operational funding, so not including funding for physical projects from CITF or PECO).
Senate position
The Senate would not change New College’s funding, nor give them the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus. So that would leave New College at it’s normal funding level, which includes $10 million of recurring funding. Half of that $10 million recurring is restricted to use for scholarships, the remaining $5 million is unrestricted.
Comparing the two positions, here are possible funding outcomes for New College going into July 2026:
Without the $22 million in recurring from USF, New College would have $25 million less in legislative funding for 2026-2027 than they had the previous year.
Corcoran, though, is on track to underspend this year by ~$11 million according to the May 12, 2026 Board of Trustees materials, so should have some cushion to weather what would be his smallest legislative allocation since becoming president of New College. One legislative change that might impact that: HB 5003 earmarks “12 percent of their annual state operating budget carry forward to be applied towards the completion of previously-funded PECO projects” - so that might reduce carry forward flexibility.
What was New College asking the legislature for?
Below are the top 3 priorities that New College was sharing with legislators in Tallahassee earlier this year. Not to be too nit picky, it’s surprising that the 2nd point, the request for recurring funding, lists both “$25 million” and “$35 million” leaving it unclear how much they were actually asking for.
New College of Florida: 2026-27 Legislative Priorities
1. USF Sarasota-Manatee Transfer to New College (with the accompanying conforming bill)
2. $25 Million in Recurring Operational Enhancement Funding
From the funds in Specific Appropriation 152, $35,000,000 in recurring funds from the General Revenue Fund is provided to the New College of Florida for operational enhancements as determined by the President and Board of Trustees.
3. $31.7M Multi-Purpose Building Supporting Enrollment Growth (RICE Building) - PECO Ranked #7
The project includes multi-use space supporting the academic program (classrooms, study, and offices), administrative support (campus safety, records & registration, finance, employee support services, IT, student services including a common dining space, and various site improvements. With the growth planned for the College, this project will provide necessary space for new programs. This building will also provide space for existing programs that have been displaced due to planned demolition of buildings.
That third item, the Rice building, has not appeared in the PECO funding list, but that could change.
So what happens next?
Items that were not agreed up during the first week of the special session are now “bumped” up to conference and legislator leadership to figure out, and then a final budget will be presented to legislators after Memorial Day.
Anything could change – any of the USF transfer, debt, and funding could be included in the budget, none could, there could be new changes we haven’t seen yet.
For example, in the 2025 legislative session, there was no additional money for New College in the budget, but during the joint budget conference, New College was allocated $25 million non-recurring dollars out of a discretionary higher education allocation.
We should know in the next two weeks where things will shake out – fingers crossed.
