State: List of budget 'turkeys' a record

TALLAHASSEE -- Faced with their tightest budget year in a decade, Florida lawmakers knew they couldn't get everything they wanted. But that didn't stop them from trying, according to a government watchdog group.

Florida TaxWatch on Thursday released its annual list of turkeys, the local pork projects legislators insert in the state budget. TaxWatch president Dominic Calabro said it was the largest list of turkeys -- 528 projects worth $288-million -- that his group has seen since it started combing the budget for questionable spending projects in 1983.

"Florida lawmakers served up a turkey feast," Calabro said.

According to TaxWatch, more than $30-million in turkeys went to the counties in and around House Speaker Tom Feeney's Central Florida district. TaxWatch found another $13-million in the counties south of Tampa Bay represented by Senate President John McKay.

Some of TaxWatch's turkey choices seem easy to understand, such as using $700,000 to build a softball field in Plant City Republican Rep. Johnnie Byrd's back yard. Other projects have broader appeal -- funding seniors centers, for example -- but nonetheless were declared turkeys.

Calabro said the list is not a statement of any project's worth. Some may be great projects, but they didn't follow the Legislature's own rules for funding, he said. Others may be private entities that should seek private, not public, funding.

In all, the money lawmakers set aside for their pet projects could have been used to hire 10,000 more teachers or given every Florida household a $46 check, Calabro said.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Jeb Bush said he hadn't made any final decisions on the budget. She did, however, note that TaxWatch appeared to use the same criteria Bush will use when he gets out his veto pen. Bush has until midnight June 16 to sign the budget.

He has vetoed more than $300-million in each of the last two years.

One item that made this year's TaxWatch turkey list was $400,000 for the Salvation Army's Children's Village in St. Petersburg. Children's Village, which is under construction now, will be a permanent home for foster children. The Salvation Army took on the project after the state Department of Children and Families proposed it.

Children's Village provides "a great return" on the public's money, said Charles Coles, development director for the Salvation Army of South Pinellas.

Although the state will pay a projected $3-million in operating costs over four years, the Salvation Army is putting up $5-million in construction costs. It also is raising a $20-million endowment from private sources, Coles said.

"I think if you add it all together, what the state is buying for its $3-million over a four-year period is a $5-million facility, which is an answer to a problem they brought to us," Coles said.

Rep. Mike Fasano, a New Port Richey Republican who serves as majority leader, thinks the group has declared too many turkeys. He also questioned why the group's turkey list seemed to increase after a Republican governor joined forces with a Republican-led Legislature.

TaxWatch says it stays away from politics when evaluating projects. The group also says it has stopped accepting Florida state or local government money after the St. Petersburg Times reported that TaxWatch had received money from the state budget.

Calabro noted that legislative leaders have a disproportionate share of the state's total in pet projects.

"Political might does not make right," Calabro said.

For his part, Feeney guessed his district booty totaled less than $3-million, though his figure did not include the millions he earmarked for the University of Central Florida. His district includes parts of Orange, Seminole and Volusia counties.

MacKay said he thought TaxWatch was too harsh in its declarations and that some of the recommended vetoes were continuing programs the organization hadn't objected to before. He said he was particularly bothered by TaxWatch's decision not to consider an item a turkey if an agency requested it in its budget.

"That's just a silly position because it means that the Legislature is ceding its constitutional responsibility to the bureaucracy," MacKay said.

-- Times staff writer Curtis Krueger contributed to this report.

Turkey hunt

Florida TaxWatch listed these Pinellas projects as turkeys:

U.S. 19: $1.73-million

Runaway Youth Crisis Shelter: $150,000

Family Emergency Treatment Center: $350,000

St. Petersburg College: $1-million

75 substance abuse beds in St. Petersburg: $600,000

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