State: As staff doles out bad news, Bush takes veto pen in hand

"Quit sucking up!" the governor joked. "I've been hearing more of that crap in the last three weeks than you can believe! Everybody knows I'm a lousy dresser."

Lots of people are trying to butter up the governor these days, as Bush combs the $50-billion state budget and prepares to veto hundreds of millions of dollars for special hometown projects.

With the vetoes due today, Bush and his staff were making dozens of calls to give state lawmakers the bad news: Many local projects will not get state funding this year.

"I call today our annual Day of Disappointment," said Rep. Sandra Murman, R-Tampa.

Some lawmakers are so incensed that there's already talk of getting the Legislature to vote to override Bush's vetoes, said Republican Majority Leader Jim King, a Jacksonville Republican.

"There are a lot of folks that are saying their districts did better under (Democratic Gov. Lawton) Chiles than they did under Bush," King said. "I can understand their frustration, but in the end, we are all Republicans and he is our governor."

The veto process is delicate: It is important that a governor makes sure that taxpayer money is spent wisely, but legislators take a lot of pride in their hometown projects. And governors need the help of lawmakers to pass their own programs into law.

Bush slashed $313-million out of the state budget in 1999 and another $313-million in 2000.

Thursday, Bush said he was unsure what the total this year would be, but said, "My guess is it will be less than previous years."

Bush said he and the Legislature "have a basic difference of opinion" on state spending priorities.

"I hope it's based on mutual respect," Bush said.

The government watchdog group Florida TaxWatch estimates that this year's budget has about $288-million worth of special projects -- the biggest total the group has seen since it started hunting budget turkeys in 1983.

To soften political fallout, Bush has assigned his top staff members to be what he calls "buddies" to lawmakers. The "buddies" from the governor's office are supposed to call lawmakers, let lawmakers make the pitch for spending projects, and, sometimes, deliver bad news.

"Due to the criticism of the first year, a lot of the legislators felt they weren't able to communicate with the governor about their projects, so we started this system last year," Bush spokeswoman Katie Baur said.

Murman said she got a call Thursday from Kathleen Shanahan, the governor's chief of staff.

"We kind of reviewed my list of projects," Murman said. "Nothing's final yet. It's just a tentative list of vetoes, and I'm still trying to save some of them."

The main project Murman said she is still fighting for is a $500,000 effort to clean up polluted land around the Port of Tampa.

"He's vetoed quite a bit this year," Murman said. "Most member projects are history. They're not going to make it unless they have a regional impact."

House Majority Leader Mike Fasano sent a memo to Republican representatives Wednesday, urging them to support the governor at all costs.

"If you are contacted and it appears that you might lose one or more projects, please don't be discouraged or take it out on the governor," Fasano wrote.

State Sen. Jack Latvala, a Palm Harbor Republican, said Thursday he learned that Bush will veto many of the projects he tried to bring home to Pinellas County this year. Latvala wouldn't identify the projects, saying that the official news will come today.

"The question I'm going to have is: Are there any of my local projects that he has not cut? It's even worse than it was two years ago."

In years past, lawmakers complained Bush slashed worthwhile projects, including needed improvements to water and sewer systems, along with more obvious budget "turkeys" such as stadiums and festivals.

Senate President John McKay says he will be upset if Bush has a lot of vetoes this year.

House Speaker Tom Feeney called the governor a "budget disciplinarian" and admitted legislators have "lost a little bit of focus" in recent years by spending one-time revenues on projects that will have annual costs.

But Feeney said he hopes the governor will be selective.

"I've told the governor that I don't think he can take out a meat ax," Feeney said.

Two years ago, when Bush dealt with his first state budget, his vetoes made the Florida Senate so mad that they took him to court, charging that Bush violated the state Constitution by selectively slicing specific line-item appropriations. The Florida Supreme Court agreed and sided with the Senate.

Rep. Lois Frankel, leader of the House Democrats, said Thursday the governor would have been better off to veto a series of unneeded tax cuts.

"They should be putting money into education," Frankel said.

- Staff writers Tim Nickens and Angela Moore contributed to this report.

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