The Florida House Democratic Caucus has written to Florida House Speaker, Larry Cretul, requesting that a much more transparent and constructive budget exercise be undertaken, failing which they would not be participating in a “futile exercise of identifying (budget) cuts”.
In a letter dated, January 20th 2010, key Democrats have requested that the House Leadership “embrace an open and transparent budget process without secret budget meetings” and adopt a “holistic budget process”.
Signed by Franklin Sands, Leader-Florida House Democratic Caucus, Representative Geraldine Thompson, Democratic Leader Pro Tempore and Ron Saunders, Democratic Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Council, as well as, other leading Democrats, the letter maintains that the existing budget process, which fails to simultaneously consider both revenue and expenditure items is “fundamentally flawed”. Alternatively, the Democrats propose that joint meetings of the House Finance & Tax Council and the full Appropriations Council ought to be convened, to review both revenues and expenditures.
Democrats also called for an end to the raiding of the state’s trust funds which ultimately, they claim, hurts Florida’s economic recovery.
See Full Text of Florida House Democratic Caucus Letter to House Speaker Crutel Here
