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TEMPE — The University of Arizona and Arizona State University will spend $1.5 million this fall planning the next phase of a biomedical campus in downtown Phoenix, including the completion of the UA's College of Medicine and complementary programs in pharmacy and nursing.

The funds come from $12.2 million in unexpected money generated by Proposition 301, a sales tax increase supporting education, and were approved Thursday by the Arizona Board of Regents.

The presidents of the three state universities also presented the regents with spending requests for much of the rest of the "over-realized" funds, focusing on further advances for the Phoenix biomedical campus.

The magnitude of the over-realized revenue caused the regents to allocate the money differently from what they had done in the past, with a call to isolate the highest priorities in the university system and focus on projects that would help the universities collaborate.

"The board wanted to take a fresh look at the system priorities," said Robert Bulla, Board of Regents president. "There's an urgency because so much of what happens in the state of Arizona now is dependent on the expansion of the UA medical school in Phoenix and the partnership with ASU."

The $1.5 million will accelerate the planning for the second phase of the biomedical campus by at least one year. The first phase, already under way, will create a new campus for the UA's College of Medicine in renovated Phoenix Union High School buildings, with the first class of 24 medical students starting next summer. ASU's component of the initial phase is a new department of biomedical informatics.

Planning for the next phase will include a medical education building and the second of two Arizona Biomedical Collaborative buildings. The campus will house an expansion of the UA's College of Pharmacy, ASU's nursing school and, possibly, Northern Arizona University's programs in allied health professions, such as physical therapy.

UA President Robert Shelton and Arizona State University President Michael Crow will co-chair the planning committee, with each school giving $750,000 from the Proposition 301 Technology and Research Initiative Fund.

"It's a very strong statement on the part of the University of Arizona about the important collaboration and the confidence in the success of the collaboration," Shelton said.

Crow said the city of Phoenix and the state need the tri-university effort to expand the competitive position of the state on many fronts.

Bulla said expediting the planning is a necessary catalyst in generating more funding by the state and private investments.

"We want to get the planning done this fall," he said. "We don't want to miss another legislative session.

"Right now we have funding for two classes of 24 (medical students). If that's all the state did, it would fail miserably," said Bulla, retired CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona. "The plan has to come to grips with what's needed."

The planning must be more detailed and do a better job of showing the development of the biomedical campus, he said. And it must demonstrate that it's a benefit not just to the state universities but to the citizens of Arizona, he added.

"I can't think of a more worthwhile effort by the universities now to the well-being of the state of Arizona," Bulla said.

"This state will face a crisis in health care, if it's not already there. We could use 500 new M.D.s a year to keep up with demand, and we're not even close. We don't have an option. We have to move forward."

The UA is asking for an additional $3.6 million of the over-realized Technology and Research Initiative Fund money for lease, operating, maintenance and utility costs of the three Phoenix Union High School buildings at the core of the medical branch campus, as well as money for pharmacy planning and a collaborative research fund.

ASU also is requesting money for the collaborative research fund. The rest of its $3.5 million request is for the biomedical informatics department and biodesign institute. Northern Arizona University is requesting $2.3 million of the extra funds, primarily for its allied health programs, such as physician assistant and occupational-therapy training.

Bulla said it's likely the regents will continue to receive money from Proposition 301 beyond what the universities already have budgeted, but he wouldn't speculate on future allocations the board might make.