Hillsborough County area state legislators said on Tuesday that they are united in fighting for additional funding for Moffitt Cancer Center during the upcoming legislative session that begins in January in Tallahassee.
Last year the center received $5 million from the Legislature for cancer research from a cigarette-tax collection trust fund, exactly half the funding it received from the state in 2010.
The group united after hearing from Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn address the group at the Oval Theatre on the USF campus on Tuesday morning. The Mayor said it was critical for Tampa and the region for Moffitt to continue to grow, and said the restoration of such funding would allow for the expansion of the rest of the facility on McKinley Drive, which would bring over 6,000 short term construction jobs to the area.
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2011.