Scott vetoed millions of dollars of 'turkeys'

Is Gov. Rick Scott a slayer of turkeys in the state budget?

During the 2010 campaign, Scott promised to "veto what the legislators call 'turkeys' -- costly and unnecessary pork-barrel projects."

Despite lean economic times, Florida legislators still tried to sneak dozens of hometown projects within the state's $69 billion budget. We will note there isn't a perfect definition of a "turkey" in a state budget.

The Times/Herald put the total at $156 million for hometown projects -- a big number but about 0.23 percent of the total budget. The Tampa Tribune put the figure at "more than $150 million."

But newspapers widely report the nearly $203 million total turkey figure from Florida TaxWatch, a group that has been tracking state budget spending for years. TaxWatch defines turkeys as projects placed in the budget without proper public review which circumvent procedures or lack competitive bidding or benefit a special interest or local area. By labeling a project a "turkey" Florida TaxWatch isn't saying the project is worthless -- the label refers to the budget process itself. 

Some of these turkeys were added in last-minute negotiations between the House and Senate -- which typically means they were not requested by an agency or the governor and were not included in the original budget bills that passed either chamber. In other words, these are projects ultimately selected by very few legislators who hold positions of power to finalize the budget. For more information read TaxWatch's Turkey Report.

For this year, Florida TaxWatch created a spreadsheet of 105 turkeys or about $202.9 million -- the most it tallied since 2007. Scott vetoed about $180.9 million, or 87 projects -- that translates to 89 percent of the turkey dollars. That's more than any other Florida governor in the past 10 years, according to Florida TaxWatch's report. The turkeys on the list include an array of projects for universities, health/human services and cultural programs. The spreadsheet lists the project, dollar amount and county location and comments which explain why the organization considers it a turkey. Here are a few examples on the turkey list that were vetoed, according to TaxWatch:

* Dan Marino Foundation, $500,000, Broward County

* Little Havana Activities and Nutrition Centers $100,000, Miami-Dade County 

* University of South Florida - Health School of Pharmacy at Polytechnic $10 million, Polk County

* International Regatta Sports Center - Nathan Benderson Park $5 million, Pinellas County

Among the turkeys that Scott didn't veto -- some were for health care, such as $3 million for rural primary care residency slots. Others that survived included stormwater improvement projects and the Florida Holocaust Museum in Pinellas County (while a project at a Holocaust museum in Broward County was axed.)

Another interesting note about turkeys: take a look at the location of those hometown projects. The county that received the most hometown projects was Orange, home to Republican House Speaker Dean Cannon. And the largest turkey was for a veterans homeless support group in Brevard -- home to Republican Senate President Mike Haridopolos. Broward County -- the second-most populous but lacking political muscle in GOP Tallahassee because its legislators and voters are overwhelmingly Democratic -- was lower on the list.

The turkey vetoes aren't the full sum of Scott's vetoes -- he axed about $615 million from the state budget -- about half for environmental land buys. Whether he holds the veto record depends on whether you include the land buys, according to the St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald.

Kurt Wenner, Florida TaxWatch's project leader for the turkey list, says he doesn't believe we will ever see a governor veto 100 percent of turkeys when there are a significant number of them.

"Ninety percent is a very high amount particularly for the number of turkeys we had," he said.

Scott didn't provide detail in his campaign 7-7-7 plan to make it clear about whether he intended to veto every single turkey. We agree with Wenner -- it's unlikely a governor would ax every single one. We rate this Promise Kept.