On a federal level, wasteful spending is called “pork barrel,” but in Florida it’s called “Turkey Projects.”
Since 1983, Florida TaxWatch has released its annual Budget Turkey Watch Report analyzing the state’s budget and some of the spending waste voted in favor of by legislators.
This year’s report looks at Florida’s $115.1 billion dollar budget and the 1,600 local member projects totaling over $2 billion.
The groups report identifies 238 appropriations totaling $413.5 million that did not adhere to established review procedures—designating them as “Budget Turkeys”—and flags an additional $799.5 million in projects that merit heightened executive review.
Just to show how much spending has increased. In 2016, there were an estimated 550 such projects worth less than $400 million. In recent years, those numbers have nearly tripled in quantity and increased seven-fold in funding. TaxWatch says nothing has stemmed the rising tide of member projects. “In fact, an argument could be made that they (legislators) have promoted the surge,” said the group.
In this session alone, local member projects still flourish. House and Senate members submitted over 5,100 project requests totaling $11.7 billion, an average of 32 per legislator. TaxWatch points out that over the last 9 years, $14 billion in earmarks has been steered to local entities. Member project spending has skyrocketed from 400,000,020 16 to nearly 3,000,000,000 a year despite rules intended to curb it.
“It was not always like this. This explosion in member projects—both requested and funded—came despite an effort to instill transparency, review, and deliberation to these appropriations. In 2017, the Legislature enacted rules for “appropriations projects,” spearheaded by then-Speaker Richard Corcoran to combat what he termed an “epidemic” of earmarks,” said TaxWatch.
What comes next? Most analysts believe Gov. DeSantis will veto millions in this year’s budget as he has done every year.
TaxWatch says their report is rooted in the principle that taxpayer dollars must be allocated transparently and deliberatively.
