Update: Governor Vetoes Broward Projects
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Gov. Rick Scott okayed on Monday most of the spending for Broward approved by the Legislature.
Still, Scott vetoed state spending on some Broward projects Monday. Other programs in Broward may have been affected by budget language vetoed by the governor.
The projects vetoed are:
* Transportion Hub, State Road 7, Lauderdale Lakes, $500,000,
* Program of All Inclusive Elderly Care (PALE), $353,867,
* Drainage improvements, Hallandale Beach, $500,000,
* Holocaust Center, $500,000,
* Flood mitigation, Lauderdale Lakes, $500,000,
* Seawall Improvements, Fort Lauderdale’s Seven Isles section, $100,000.
The Holocaust Center money was specifically singled out by Senate President Don Gaetz in the news release below. Does Florida TaxWatch has more weight with the governor than Gaetz?
An earlier post below lists all the proposed money for Broward. It appears that most of this survived the veto pen.
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Below are the Broward County items that were included in the state budget by Florida’s Legislature.
Florida TaxWatch has denounced many of these expenditures as “turkeys,” meaning they are unnecessary and wasteful.
State Senate President Don Gaetz had this to say this week about Florida TaxWatch’s “turkey” list:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 16, 2013
STATEMENT FROM PRESIDENT GAETZ REGARDING FLORIDA TAXWATCH
Tallahassee — Florida Senate President Don Gaetz (R-Niceville) today released the following statement regarding Florida TaxWatch releasing their 2013 Turkey Watch Report.
“The TaxWatch list is built on the unconstitutional perversion that if an appropriation isn’t recommended by unelected agency officials it shouldn’t be considered in conference by elected legislators. This is an arrogance of the elite who spend too much time in Tallahassee and Washington listening to the echoes of their own invented wisdom and thinking they’re hearing the voice of God.
“No agency put in its budget a $3,500 raise for Florida’s most effective teachers, yet that was funded. No agency testified before the Legislature asking for a raise for state employees who had been without one for six years, yet we passed it. No bureaucrat in the Department of Education asked for a career-technical pathway to a high school diploma or an online pathway to a university degree, but we funded them. Not a whisper of criticism from TaxWatch on any of these and a hundred other similar items. So, apparently, their indignation is not only ill-informed but selective.
“TaxWatch has dismissed as ‘turkeys’ mobile medical and dental units to bring health care to poor people in rural areas, documentation and education about the Holocaust, housing for disabled veterans, rehabilitation for severely wounded soldiers who want to return to duty, and replacement of 50 year old educational facilities that produce workforce for companies bringing jobs to Florida. In most cases, those who put together this list couldn’t find these projects on a map and haven’t put five minutes into finding out anything about them.
“If our founders had shared the slavish devotion of Taxwatch to unchallenged decisions and dictates of faraway bureaucrats, we’d all be drinking English tea and singing God Save the Queen. A good song. But not an American song. The Constitution obligates and empowers elected legislators, who come from communities and go home to communities, to write the state’s budget. If TaxWatch staffers want to test their budget theories in the public square, let them stand up in front of conference committees and testify in public. More than thirty public, open conference committee meetings were held during the recent legislative session. Every item in the state budget was proposed and adopted during those public meetings. Testimony was requested and welcomed at every meeting. Not once did any person from TaxWatch ask one question, offer one idea or say one word.
“It is little wonder that TaxWatch is irrelevant 364 days a year.”
In Broward, the spending watchdog group’s “turkeys” include $484,000 for a road project in Lauderdale Lakes, $500,000 for the Holocaust Center and $500,000 for a transportation hub facility on State Road 7.
You can look at the list by clicking on the three images below and decide which projects you believe are unnecessary and wasteful.
But your opinion really doesn’t count. It is Gov. Rick Scott who will decide which of these items to line-item veto.
We’ll see soon.
May 17th, 2013 at 7:50 pm
I am sure LaMarca’s Tallahassee republican friends got more money for broke Lauderdale lakes. Sadly I don’t see any turkeys for his own district.
May 18th, 2013 at 12:12 am
The Holocaust Center is a turkey for sure.
The Internet already provides very ample documentation, and a local center could never hope to approach the quality of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum!
http://www.ushmm.org/
May 20th, 2013 at 12:13 pm
So the gov’s decision not to piss away $1.1mil on garbage projects is a bad thing?????
May 20th, 2013 at 3:44 pm
2of 3 Broward County projects that were vetoed were L Lakes- that should tell everyone how Tallahassee feels about L Lakes.
FROM BUDDY:
Chaz had been exposing some of the wrongdoing in Lauderdale Lakes on his website http://www.myactsofsedition.com.
May 20th, 2013 at 5:41 pm
Chaz
That any money got to Lauderdale Lakes would suggest someone with some juice with Republicans had to get the 1 through that passed. Chip and Dale are close now. Seem to make sense.
May 20th, 2013 at 6:55 pm
The secret is out about Lauderdale Lakes! A crooked city manager and commission, stormwater grant money and assessments illegally used to replenish the broke General Fund, a 160% increase in stormwater assessments, in spite of no significant stormwater improvement projects in the last three years, and an overpaid, unqualified and uneducated stormwater superintendent, who happens to be a close friend and lackey of the CM.
Is it any wonder the gravy train to this cesspool has finally derailed?
May 20th, 2013 at 10:11 pm
>> Chip and Dale are close now.
What never made sense is how Chip, the lone Tea Party Fucknut on the Board, helps funnel tons of cash to that turd bucket (aka Lauderdale Lakes).
I dunno, perhaps Chip can’t read … as I’ve provided reams of data indicating CM Jon Allen and Co. are cooking the books.
The SAO is investigating. The Miami Dade SAO is investigation. The FDLE is investigating. The IRS is investigating. The OIG is investigating.
Perhaps someone could dust off a couple of dead hookers and toss them in Eric Haynes car (we suggest one boy and one girl hooker).
Maybe that’s what’s needed.
Commissioners Ritter and Kiar have long stepped to the plate.
Chip LaMarca. Not so much.
Maybe he’s worried his credit card theft of years ago will somehow get caught up in an audit.
May 21st, 2013 at 12:44 am
The Holocaust Center is undoubtedly a big turkey no question!
May 21st, 2013 at 8:18 am
Chaz
All you have to do is gaze out your window to understand the bond between Chip n Dale. Black Deerfield. Dale is tight with Scott and other leaders up there. Chip needs that area to cut the Dem advantage in the District overall. Why else would a Republican be willing to support a financial bailout for Lauderdale Lakes when he was critical of the President giving a bailout to GM and others.
May 21st, 2013 at 9:38 am
Anybody who thinks LaMarca has even one teeny tiny bit of influence in Tallahassee can call me. I’d like to sell you a piece of the Las Olas Bridge.
What amazes me is smart people like Chaz, who don’t fall for the jaguar or the wine cellar bit, will fall for the same charade when it comes to “influence.”
May 21st, 2013 at 8:36 pm
Comm.Chip Lamarca is a decent man. Ok so he is a Republican-fine. Comm. Lamarca ask “big boy bad ass(as if)Chaz Stevens, tell him when he gets a job and is a tax-payer, then talk his talk. I mean really people Chip did speak in front of Gov,Scott @ the big chin-dig the other night. Believe me I am no fan of Gov.Scott, but to call Comm.larmarca names etc,is bogus- and get over that he bought a Jag, and the wine cellar etc. I mean get some new material….For the last time Chaz Stevens when you get a job, then talk. Silvia Porter and “company” make a move w/ this guy….