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Turkey Talk

May 23rd, 2014 by flanews

Florida’s record 77 billion dollar state budget is awaiting the Governor’s signature, but as Matt Galka explains, there were more than 100 hometown projects added at the last minute without proper review. One group calls the projects the state’s “budget turkeys.”

Florida’s record spending plan is stuffed with last minute funding requests.

“We’re talking about a significant amount of money. Government reaching into people’s pockets and taking out that money,” said TaxWatch Chief Research Officer Robert Weissert.

With a stuffed bird in tow, Florida TaxWatch identified 107 turkeys for the 2014 budget. The group says being a turkey is not a mark against the projects worthiness. They take issue with the projects not being properly reviewed.

“Our point is, you don’t bring in brand new projects that haven’t been discussed at that point, we want to see them go through the process like everything else,” said Kurt Wenner, the group’s V.P. for Tax Research.

The last minute additions inflate taxpayer spending. They usually come up during lawmaker negotiations. The list totaled $120 million bucks.

“The state’s budget grew by $1.8 billion dollars over what the House had recommended. $2.2 billion over what the Senate had recommended,” said Wenner.

“TaxWatch says that the turkey money could pay for things like giving every state worker a thousand dollar raise. Or further increase per student funding. 120 million dollars could also buy a turkey sandwich for every person in the state.”

Everything from sports fields to homeless services to university building help made the turkey list. Florida’s Governor has vetoed 70 percent of the items TaxWatch has recommended in the past, but hundreds still make it into the budget every year.

“Turkeys keep popping up because it really is the sweetest thing in life to spend other people’s money,” said Weissert.

We asked the Governor’s office how much they’ll listen this time around. They responded in a statement saying  they will work within the June 4 deadline to produce the best state budget that invests in Florida’s future.

Last year, the Governor vetoed more than $70 million dollars worth of turkeys after TaxWatch identified 106 million dollars of last minute spending.

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