Miami Herald
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Acting with unusual speed and secrecy, Gov. Rick Scott vetoed $461.4 million in spending from the new state budget Tuesday, angering fellow Republicans for wiping out many of their priorities.
In the privacy of his Capitol office, away from reporters and photographers, Scott signed the $78.7 billion budget, a sign that he realized the implications of his actions.
Lawmakers padded the budget with hundreds of hometown projects and Scott vetoed many of them: water and sewer improvements, libraries, museums, marinas, and money for Special Olympics, United Cerebral Palsy and a Holocaust memorial on Miami Beach.
“I go through the budget and I try to find out what’s best for citizens. This is their money. It’s not government money,” Scott said. “It’s their money. They’re paying taxes, and I’m going to do my best to make sure that money’s spent wisely.”
Scott faced criticism for a lack of consistency in his veto decisions. He came under fire from Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam for vetoing a $2,000-a-year pay raise for state firefighters who work for the Division of Forestry — yet Scott did not veto pay raises for Highway Patrol troopers in six counties or raises for driver license examiners.
“I’m profoundly disappointed,” Putnam said. “Our forest firefighters put their lives on the line. They’re demonstrably underpaid.”
Scott denied that his vetoes were acts of retribution against Republican senators who challenged him during the 60-day regular session, but his aggressive use of his veto pen may further damage relations between them with another session six months away.
With the stroke of a pen, Scott erased most spending priorities of Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, who oversaw economic development spending and who often professed his admiration for Scott in the spring session.
“The governor has declared war on the Legislature,” Latvala said, putting the blame squarely on Scott’s chief of staff, Melissa Sellers, who formerly worked for Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana.
“The governor is not being well served by these kids from Louisiana,’’ Latvala said. “They’ve got him totally isolated. You can’t have a meeting without Melissa sitting there. She totally controls the agenda, but what are her credentials to do that? She won a campaign.”
Scott’s veto list included $241,000 to restore the Bethel AME Church in St. Petersburg. He said the rejected projects either were not statewide priorities or duplicated existing programs.
Two major University of South Florida projects survived. They are $17 million to relocate USF’s Morsani College of Medicine to downtown Tampa and $12.3 million toward USF’s business school in St. Petersburg.
Among the more notable items slashed was a controversial $2.05 million earmarked for sports facility IMG Academy in Bradenton, a project added to the budget by lawmakers without any public vetting just before a budget deal was reached.
Several priorities of Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-0rlando, were cut, including $15 million for a downtown Orlando campus of the University of Central Florida that Scott said “circumvented” the Board of Governor’s ranking of projects.
Scott also vetoed $300,000 for a Holocaust memorial for Miami Beach and $50,000 for the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center. He vetoed legislative grants to the Special Olympics and United Cerebral Palsy.
He vetoed funding increases for Nova Southeastern University in Davie, a private college, because the school increased its tuition by 2.9 percent last year.
Scott also vetoed grants to expand substance abuse treatment and re-entry programs for inmates leaving Florida’s prison system, including in St. Petersburg and Fort Lauderdale.
His veto message said the substance abuse projects “were not subject to any process to validate the programs as a comprehensive evidence-based model that would ensure successful outcomes for inmates reintegrating back into the community.”
Latvala had budgeted $1 million to restore a marina in Pahokee; $1 million for East Lake Library in Palm Harbor; and $300,000 for a water taxi project on Clearwater Beach — all were vetoed. Scott also vetoed Latvala’s idea of a $1 million program to train more pilots in Florida in an effort to improve the quality of air service in Tallahassee.
“State educational institutions provide such training,” Scott’s veto message said.
All told Scott’s list of line-item vetoes runs for 10 pages and totals $461,387,164.
Scott and his advisers did not share much of their decision-making with key legislators or their staff members beforehand.
“I didn’t know it was coming,” said Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg.
Scott took the advice of House Appropriations Chairman Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes, who urged the governor to “veto boldly,” paraphrasing Martin Luther.
Scott acted swiftly, too: The budget passed the Legislature last Friday by votes of 37-0 in the Senate and 96-17 in the House. Passage was nearly two months late, the result of a prolonged political stalemate between the House and Senate over health care policy.
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