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Jeb Bush stood up to members of his party and remained true to his own veto standards when he stripped a record $349-million from the state budget.
Like the first round of budget vetoes he issued five years ago, Gov. Jeb Bush dug deep and took on his own party's legislative leaders this year. In so doing, his record $349-million in vetoes served to reinforce a necessary point of fiscal discipline: State money ought not be doled out simply to those with powerful political patrons.
A few of his vetoes were particularly pointed, especially the ones aimed at House Speaker Johnnie Byrd and Senate President Jim King. Bush cut $12-million for Byrd's Alzheimer's center at the University of South Florida and $5-million for a new courthouse in Byrd's hometown of Plant City. King lost $7.6-million for Super Bowl preparations and security in his hometown Jacksonville and $1.5-million for police and fire equipment for Welaka, where he has a weekend house.
The cuts were no doubt made easier by the timing, given that Byrd and King are completing their terms as legislative chiefs. But the governor took on other influential interests in his party, both in Tallahassee and communities throughout the state. Not surprisingly, some of the Democrats who as the minority party had little access to budgetary goodies, praised Bush. Said House Democratic leader Doug Wiles: "Gov. Bush was right to send a message to Republican leaders that the state budget is not their personal checkbook for unnecessary and wasteful special interest pork spending."
In deciding which projects to veto, Bush generally has distinguished between those that received full administrative and legislative scrutiny and those that didn't. In his veto message, he also sent a stern, and appropriate, warning about the Legislature's increasing reliance on "proviso" language - words slipped into the voluminous appropriations bill that are designed to create programs or policies for which no law has passed. "It is important," he wrote, "that I express my serious concerns regarding the legality of such proviso and reserve the right to seek an appropriate remedy in the future."
One veto that did not seem consistent with either the governor's standards or the state's obligations was the $20.7-million he took away from hospital emergency trauma centers. Bush made some fair criticisms of the formula that was used to divide the money between the 20 trauma centers, but he didn't note that the bottom line was roughly one-sixth of the identified cost. More worrisome, the governor acted as though the trauma network, which was established by the state to protect all its citizens in case of severe medical emergency, is somehow a local responsibility. He even suggested local taxes as an alternative. But the trauma centers, among their many duties, are the first responders for bioterrorism, and it is unthinkable that the state would not support them financially.
Those who are aggrieved by the elimination of worthy projects in their communities no doubt will question whether the governor has been consistent in his spending priorities. But, for the most part, he has been true to his own veto standards, and legislative leaders would be wise to listen.