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Pinellas braces for governor's veto pen

The county's legislative delegation got a number of local projects in the state budget, but the survival of some is in doubt.

By WILL VAN SANT
Published May 4, 2006

Pinellas County's legislative delegation got money for local projects ranging from park upgrades to creating new water supplies to improving inmate rehabilitation inserted in the budget state lawmakers are scheduled to approve Friday.

But Gov. Jeb Bush, whose disdain for what some call local pork projects has earned him the nickname Veto Corleone, has the power to kill them all.

And some items are sure to stick in the governor's throat like a piece of bad prosciutto.

Pinellas County is slated to get $150,000 to plan, develop and promote a saltwater paddling trail for canoes and kayaks, though details on plans for the trail were sketchy. The county also could get $75,000 to create an interpretive display that would go with the historic sponge warehouse brought from Tarpon Springs to Heritage Village in Largo and $435,900 for enhancements to Wall Springs Park.

Assistant county administrator Elithia Stanfield, who runs Pinellas' lobbying operations in Tallahassee, said the governor vetoes about half the local appropriations in the state budget each year.

This is Bush's last chance to wield the veto pen and there has been speculation that he might be more generous as a parting gesture, but Stanfield is not counting on that.

"He generally doesn't like them," she said of local appropriations. "We have been very careful in what we submitted."

Pinellas beach renourishment projects totaling $305,100 and $183-million in state transportation projects in the budget are expected to be fully funded, Stanfield said.

Some items on the county's wish list did not even make it into the Legislature's budget. They included $150,000 to replace a bait shop at the Belleair causeway bridge and $250,000 for a mobile medical van.

Oldsmar stands to get $2-million to begin work on a $16-million reverse osmosis water treatment plant. City officials say the plant would allow them to turn brackish water into drinking water, reducing the strain on the regional supply by 2-million gallons a day.

The plant also would allow the city to get into the utility business and stop paying other local governments for water. Assistant City Manager Marnie Burns said the project is meant to benefit residents, not to be a revenue machine for Oldsmar.

Among the North Pinellas nonprofit organizations that have money in the budget, Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services of Clearwater leads with pack with a $650,000 appropriation to help mentally ill ex-inmates find places in the community and reduce recidivism. The organization had requested $850,000.

The Clearwater Free Clinic could get $100,000 The money would allow the clinic, which serves about 1,000 uninsured patients a month, to keep a nurse assistant on staff for a year.

Clinical director Jean Williamson defended the appropriation. She said the nurse assistant is needed and those who might see the appropriation as a pork payout don't understand how important free clinics are to those in need or how nonprofit groups operate.

"We are very judicious in how we spend our money here," Williamson said. "That's why you don't get voice mail when you call."

Bush will release his list of vetoed local appropriations after a review that could take several weeks.

Will Van Sant can be reached at 445-4166 or vansant@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 4, 2006, 00:59:16]