In 2003, lawmakers ponied up $310 million from the state’s incentive fund for high-tech projects for the Scripps Florida research facility in Palm Beach County, and later gave $155 million for the Burnham Institute for Medical Research at Lake Nona in Orlando. Other projects include a branch of the Max Planck Institute ($94 million), the Miami Institute for Human Genomics ($80 million) and four smaller centers.

When private and local funding is included, the eight biotechnology projects have received a total of $1.55 billion so far. That equates to $1.4 million in taxpayer expense per job created.

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