TALLAHASSEE -- Florida Taxwatch is out with its annual look at the state budget and surprisingly, complimented the Legislature for doing a good job overall.
Former Senator George Lemieux, chairman of the taxpayer watchdog group, praised the House and Senate leaders for heeding past years' recommendations and putting $8 billion in reserves from a $112 billion budget. They also got praise for not adding local projects during budget negotiations.
Lemieux then went on to state that 166 budget items, worth $281 million, are what Taxwatch calls "turkeys." These are items that may be worthy but got into the budget without open scrutiny.
Taxwatch also identified more than $750 million in items which were added as supplemental funding, a category Lemieux dubbed "sprinkles." "Sprinkles are the new turkeys," Lemieux said.
One of those "sprinkles" involves $35 million for a sports complex in Pasco County, which would include a spring training site for the Tampa Bay Rays, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Senior VP of research Kurt Wenner says many of the "sprinkles" turn out to be more money for existing projects.
The state got a massive infusion of federal funds this year. Taxwatch didn't tag projects funded with that money as "turkeys," saying they wanted that money to be spent in Florida and not in other states with less fiscal accountability.
Lemieux expressed the hope that lawmakers won't expect this level of funding in the future. "“In less than 20 years, the state budget has doubled while the population of Florida has not doubled... lawmakers in the future are going to have to be very circumspect with their spending and not expect to have these 10 and 20 percent increases every year.”
Information from the News Service of Florida was used in this report.
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