The Republican controlled Florida Legislature added $61 million in budget “turkeys” to the 2010-11 state budget, even as the state faces the largest budget shortfall in history, Florida TaxWatch said on Monday. Florida legislators included numerous member projects without proper opportunity for debate and public review, thereby circumventing lawfully established procedures, the review states.
While this year’s budget “turkeys” are relatively small compared to recent history, all the same they represented an increase of $46 million on 41 line- items, over the $15 million total of last year.
“The 2010 turkey consists largely of appropriations to specific organizations that were added in conference and appropriations that bypassed established selection processes or competitive bidding,” the authors state.
Most of the projects are included after the House and Senate each pass their respect budgets and at the stage where a conference committee is formed to reconcile the differences between the two. At this stage, only a handful of influential legislators participate.
The TurkeyWatch review does not offer a critique of an individual project’s merit, value or “need”, but stresses that most of the projects or turkeys introduced in conference committee are at the request of individual legislators for their districts.
According to the News Service of Florida, House budget chairman, David Rivera’s home Miami-Dade County commanded 12 of the 41 line-items marked as turkeys, while Lake Wales hometown Senate budget chairman J.D. Alexander, a Republican, accounted for a $1 million appropriation to improve dental and medical services, a project that failed to win support from either state health officials or the governor.
Other turkeys identified by TaxWatch are $150,000 in emergency generators for Golden Beach community in Miami-Dade; $800,000 for a Fort Lauderdale River Oaks stormwater project; $408,000 for boating related activities for Brevard/Indian River and $1 million for Lauderhill Performing Arts Center. The biggest turkey identified was $8.5 million for the FAMU Crestview Center in Okaloosa.
Perhaps the best argument for stopping turkeys is the essential state services that could be funded if they were not entertained, TaxWatch states. The stakes are even higher in a year when the new budget sustained significant funding cuts in social services, health care and education, among others.
It is now up to Governor Charlie Crist to use his veto pen.
