Rick Scott budget vetoes impact Northeast Florida needs

Gov. Rick Scott’s budget veto list is out, and Northeast Florida was not spared the axe. Some education, health, and infrastructure projects will have to wait until next year.

Crosswalk safety didn’t make the cut, as a $1.231M ask for signal installation, carried by Rep. Clay Yarborough, fell to the floor.

As did University of North Florida Schultz Hall building renovations, another Yarborough project, at a line item of $3M – cut. As was UNF’s “Culture of Completion and Career Initiative,” a $2M ask.

AGAPE Community Health Center was denied $500,000 for mobile dental services, along with $563,000 for behavioral health services.

The Riverside Arts Market was earmarked for $500,000, but one stroke of the veto pen cost the Jacksonville fixture a half-million dollars.

Jacksonville’s LaSalle Street Pump Station, alas, will not get the $350,000 Rep. Jason Fischer pushed through. Fischer also wasn’t able to get $250,000 for a driverless medical shuttle to and from Baptist Hospital, which he had hoped would be a prototype for programs like this throughout the state.

And the Port of Fernandina will not get $3,000,000 for its crane and warehouse after all, as Cord Byrd had hoped.

The Beaver Street Enterprise Center was denied its $400,000 allocation, another Yarborough priority.

Neptune Beach was denied $400,000 for stormwater culvert improvements on Florida Boulevard: Sen. Aaron Bean and Rep. Cord Byrd had carried that one.