City Commissioners Jeremy Matlow and Jack Porter released statements critical of the proposed deal brokered between the City of Tallahassee and Florida State University involving the sale of city-owned hospital assets currently leased to Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare.
While Mayor Dailey, City Commissioners Dianne Williams Cox and Curtis Richardson, and FSU President Richard McCullough were upbeat about a deal that could lead to an academic medical center in North Florida, progressive elected officials Jeremy Matlow and Jack Porter released statements saying the deal is bad for Tallahassee.
Matlow said citizens are “being robbed” and “gets screwed” with the deal. Porter assessed the sale as “pennies on the dollar.”
As a part of the proposed agreement, FSU will pay the City of Tallahassee $109 million over the next 30 years for the city-owned hospital property and assets. Currently, the city receives $1 a year from TMH.
The $109 million to be received by the city, is for the land and the assets minus any debt. The debt associated with the land and assets, which is approximately $350 million, is the responsibility of TMH.
In addition, the university will invest at least $100 million in facility upgrades and $150 million in clinical and academic enhancements by Dec. 31, 2034.
Matlow stated, less than 30 minutes after the deal was announced, that “The people of Tallahassee are being robbed in broad daylight and losing a public asset valued at hundreds of millions of dollars for a quarter of the value— and only $3 million a year. This is a continuation of the trend where insiders win in backroom deals and the rest of the public gets screwed.
We deserve better.”
Porter said, “I want to see improved healthcare and an academic health center in Tallahassee—neither of which requires us to sell the hospital,” she said. “But selling one of our greatest public assets without an appraisal for pennies on the dollar with so little opportunity for meaningful community engagement is a bad deal for Tallahassee.”
The City Commission is scheduled to take action on the MOU at the next regularly scheduled January 14, 2026, meeting at 3 p.m. at City Hall.