TALLAHASSEE—An independent watchdog group dedicated to saving Florida tax dollars identified $416 million in the newly passed state budget that they believe Gov. Ron DeSantis should heavily scrutinize—and perhaps veto.
Florida TaxWatch released its annual "Budget Turkey" list on Tuesday, a day after the Legislature finalized a $115.1 billion budget for the next fiscal year. A Budget Turkey is an appropriations item that bypasses or violates procedures or public scrutiny.
This year's report identifies 242 items totaling $416.5 million as Turkeys that DeSantis should exercise "especially close scrutiny" over. They also point to an additional $799.5 million in member projects that, while they don't qualify as Turkeys, "merit extra scrutiny" from the governor.
“While we commend the Florida Legislature for constructing a smaller budget than last year’s by approximately $3.5 billion, Florida TaxWatch encourages Gov. DeSantis to provide ‘especially close scrutiny’ to the $799.5 million in specific line-items identified in our report," said Florida TaxWatch Executive Vice President and General Counsel Jeff Kottkamp, a former state Lieutenant Governor, in a statement.
Though they lauded the budget for being over $3 billion less than the current budget, they still flagged excess spending they believe DeSantis should examine.
"When considering the budget, we strongly encourage Gov. DeSantis to assess each project we flagged—Turkey or otherwise—and determine whether its funding is counter to good budgeting practices," said Taxwatch President and CEO Dominic Calabro.
This budget includes a total of 1,600 member projects worth more than $2 billion, though lawmakers made over 5,100 requests totaling $11.7 billion.
This includes a total of $150.8 million in the higher education Turkeys—where Taxwatch noted that colleges and universities received "none of the funding ($98.0 million and $81.8 million, respectively) requested for maintenance and repair of facilities"—and $15.7 million in agriculture, pointing out that three of seven controversial projects are located in Senate President Ben Albritton's Hardee County.
There was also $10.96 million for boating, around $200 million for transportation, $3.8 million for historic preservation, and $4.6 million for culture and museum projects.
"This session, and the budget process, were not typical. The relationships between the House, Senate, and Governor were much more strained than they have been in recent years and disagreements were harder to resolve," the report says, nodding toward the unusual tension between GOP leaders.
To be considered a Turkey, appropriations must violate budgeting practices in at least one of the following ways:
- A project that circumvents an established review and selection process or has completed the established process but is funded ahead of much higher priority projects (as determined by the selection process);
- Appropriations that are inserted into the budget during conference committee meetings, meaning they did not appear in either the final Senate or House budget;
- Appropriations that do not adhere to the rules adopted by the House and Senate for appropriations (member) projects;
- Appropriations that may have been in the House or Senate budget, but were removed by agreement in conference, only to be added back at the last minute through the supplemental appropriation (“sprinkle”) lists; or
- Appropriations from inappropriate trust funds, duplicative appropriations, and appropriations contingent on legislation that did not pass.
