The government watch dog group, Florida Tax Watch has identified about $120-million slated for spending under next year’s budget that the group says were slipped into the spending plan without a full legislative overview. Its part of Tax Watch’s annual “turkey” report.
When a project gets slipped into the state’s budget in a backroom conversation, rather than in a bill that must go through the full legislative process, Florida Tax Watch Chief Research Officer Robert Weissert, says that makes it a turkey.
“When you’re talking about the $77-billion budget that Florida has, a number of processes have been put in place to ensure accountability and transparency. When those processes are intentionally bypassed or circumvented, that’s when it’s a budget turkey,” Weissert says.
The turkey list is made up of mostly local projects including a public access boat launch in Wakulla County, and a camp for foster children in Leon County. Weissert says both those projects made the list, because they were never fully vetted by the legislature. He adds his group doesn’t consider the usefulness of a project when it compiles its turkey list.
“There are actually some tax watch priorities – some things that Tax Watch has called on the legislature to invest in whether its economic development or reentry programs for prisoners. There are things we’ve called on that will produce a return on investment positively for the citizens of Florida, but if they violated the turkey criteria and the process then they’re still a budget turkey even if the project itself may be of value. So, it’s not about the project. It’s about the process," Weissert says.
Last year, Tax Watch identified $106 million in turkey projects. Governor Rick Scott used his line item veto power to cut a little more than 40 percent of that spending. Tax Watch officials say they hope the governor will consider their list when making his veto decisions for the new budget this year.
