Turkey list: Florida TaxWatch finds $855M in budget ‘turkeys’

Ease up: Dominic Calabro warns of Florida’s burdensome tax environment.

It’s turkey season in Tallahassee, and the turkeys are thriving.

This year, Florida TaxWatch, a taxpayer watchdog group, found 450 budget projects totaling $854.6 million they deem to be “turkeys” — more commonly known as pork barrel spending or member projects. That’s a 43% increase over last year, when the group found $598.7 million in turkeys.

The overall budget this year is $117.5 billion. Lawmakers have yet to formally send the budget (HB 5001) to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“When considering the budget, we strongly encourage Gov. DeSantis to assess each project we flagged — Turkey or otherwise — and determine whether its funding is counter to good budgeting practices; it addresses a core state government function; and/or it was selected through a fair process that promotes the best interests of taxpaying citizens across the state,” Florida TaxWatch President and CEO Dominic Calabro said in a prepared statement.

TaxWatch defines a project as a “turkey” if it avoids the regular budget process for member projects; is funded ahead of other projects with greater need; is inserted into the budget during negotiations with the House and Senate, and wasn’t included in the budget of either chamber initially; the item was zeroed out in the negotiations but later reinserted, usually in the “sprinkle list”; or if it is funded from an improper trust fund, is duplicative or based on legislation that didn’t pass.

TaxWatch stresses that its turkey list isn’t a judgment on the worthiness of each project, but meant to bring transparency and oversight to the state budget process. But the report also criticizes the “explosion” in member projects, despite attempts in 2017 to bring more transparency to the process surrounding them under then-House Speaker Richard Corcoran.

“Member projects have always been important to legislators, but their proliferation has changed attitudes towards them,” the report states. “Any sheepishness about attempting to ‘bring home the bacon’ seems to have disappeared. The formal processes for requesting member projects that the Legislature created may have contributed to that, even if they have improved transparency.”

The largest portion of the turkeys were the 281 water projects worth $410.3 million the TaxWatch report says didn’t go through the Department of Environmental Protection’s competitive grant program, which “helps ensure that the best projects are awarded funding under a coordinated, statewide framework and promote state goals and priorities.”