State of the City: Orlando Mayor Dyer Touts Successes
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
By: Tom Parkinson

February 29, 2012 | WMFE - The new Lake Nona medical complex in south Orlando is expected to bring more than 30 thousand high-tech jobs to the city with an estimated $8 billion dollar economic impact. That was the message from Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer in his annual State of the City address Wednesday morning. Dyer delivered his speech not at City Hall but at the expanding new "Medical City".

  

Mayor Dyer said the new medical complex will transform Orlando like nothing has since Walt Disney World opened 4 decades ago.
Currently home to the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, when completed Dyer said, the complex will also be the site of a new VA hospital and several large medical research facilities including the Sanford-Burnham Institute.

“The facility will employ over 300 scientists, dedicated to finding cures for disease and improving quality of life.” Dyer said.
Orlando offered Sanford-Burnham $310 million dollars in incentives to locate at the Lake Nona complex.

Mayor Dyer also said  the city balanced its budget while maintaining the lowest tax rate of any major city in Florida and has more police officers and firefighters per capita than any other large Florida city.
The Democratic mayor’s current term in office ends this year and he is campaigning for re-election to a 3rd term.