The non-profit group Florida Taxwatch has released its annual list of what they call budget turkeys.
The group found 105 different items totaling 202 million dollars that they said did not go through the proper procedures for funding.
Many of the items on the turkey list are college or university construction projects that lawmakers inserted into the budget late in the session.
There were no projects for Franklin, Gulf or Wakulla counties that made the turkey list, though a 100 thousand dollar grant for the Liberty County school system did because it did not go through public school construction process.
A project important to Franklin County did make the list.
Florida taxwatch listed a half million dollar line item for the Public Health Entomology Research and Education Center in Bay County which studies biting insects like mosquitoes, biting flies, and ticks and works on new methods of insect control.
The facility also provides training for our local mosquito control employees.
Franklin County commissioners have supported keeping the facility open because otherwise local workers may have to go to Vero beach for training.
That project made the turkey list because it was added in conference and was not recommended by the Board of Governors.
This was not the worst year for waste in the state budget, but as Florida Taxwatch points out, without the turkeys, cuts to essential state services could have been lessened.
$71 million dollars in general revenue turkeys could have easily been spent somewhere else including in Florida schools which are facing historic budget cuts.
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