As construction continues on the new Florida Polytechnic University, the school is being dealt a major blow.
The Florida Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education released a budget draft this week, which completely cuts the school's operations budget.
According to Bay News 9's partner paper, the Ledger, because this is just a draft, the university has not officially lost part of its budget yet. Local lawmakers said they are confident they can get the money the school needs.
The university was created by a legislative bill last year and has been a source of controversy. The University of South Florida Polytechnic lost its funding when Florida Polytechnic was created, and critics have said the money being used for the new college could have been better spent at the universities that already exist.
School leaders also recently came under fire after the board of trustees voted to ask the state for more money to finish construction, a move the board later reversed.