Jesse Scheckner
In its latest annual “Budget Turkey Watchdog Report,” Florida TaxWatch has identified 242 questionable spending items totaling $416.1 million in the state’s $115.1 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2025-26.
As it has in years past, the nonprofit watchdog group is urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to scrutinize the earmarks for possible vetoes.
Florida TaxWatch defines “Budget Turkeys” as appropriations that circumvent normal review procedures, bypass public scrutiny or are added late in the budget process.
“These projects have not undergone the thorough review process that Florida’s taxpayers demand,” Florida TaxWatch President and CEO Dominic Calabro said in a statement.
“(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.”
Lawmakers finalized the state’s next budget Friday in an extended Session and passed it late Monday after a requisite 72-hour cooling-off period.
The 20-page report, which Florida TaxWatch published Tuesday, also highlights another $799.5 million in spending that, while not designated as turkeys, should receive “especially close scrutiny” from the Governor, the group said.
Higher ed construction projects skip the line
One of the largest categories of concern involves university construction. Florida TaxWatch identified 18 projects totaling $134.3 million that were not prioritized or ranked on the Board of Governors’ Public Education Capital Outlay (PECO) list.
That includes $25 million for the University of Florida Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, $14.8 million for the Hicks Honors College academic building at the University of North Florida, $12.5 million for renovations at Florida State University’s Rovetta Business Building, and $10 million for the University of South Florida’s Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing.
At the state college level, $16.5 million in construction funding bypassed the Division of Colleges’ priority list, including $5 million for Northwest Florida State College’s Workforce Innovation Center, $3.5 million for State College of Florida’s Collegiate School in Venice and $3 million for Miami Dade College’s Hialeah campus expansion.
Agriculture facilities and parks circumvent oversight
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) gave lawmakers a list of 35 qualified agricultural promotion and education facility projects this year. But the budget funds just seven projects — two that were “top priorities” of FDACS, two that were lower ranked, and three that were unranked.
The unranked items include $6.5 million for a climate controlled fair facility in Hardee County, which Florida TaxWatch personnel noted already received $1 million last year; $1.7 million for a new shelter and agritourism center at the South Florida Fairgrounds; and $500,000 for a multiuse facility at the Northeast Florida Fair Agricultural Education Community Center.
Hardee County — where Senate President Ben Albritton lives — has three of the seven funded projects.
Lawmakers also approved 18 local park projects worth $13.2 million without using the state grant systems like the Department of Environmental Protection’s competitive Recreational Development Assistance Program (FRDAP).
Among them: $2.5 million for the Plant City Lakeside Station Park; $1 million apiece for Camp Welaka Manatee County Gateway and Manatee County Washington Park; and $750 for Auburndale Lake Ariana Park.
“The budget does not fund FRDAP or the Local Trail Management grant program but instead funds these member projects,” the report said.
Boating, water and roads spending bypasses competitive review
The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission administers the state’s Boating Improvement Program, which awards $6 million annually, and related grants. Lawmakers nevertheless allocated general revenue funds for seven boating-related projects that avoided those competitive avenues.
That included $6.1 million for a boat lock project Albritton sought funding for in Charlotte County and $1.65 million for a mooring facility in Boca Chica.
Even more concerning to Florida TaxWatch is that $461.5 million allocated to the state’s Water Quality Improvement Grant Program is almost entirely earmarked for 314 member projects. Lawmakers had to insert a one-year exemption from the program’s statutory criteria just to allow the allocations.
TaxWatch personnel called it “a step in the wrong direction” and criticized the Legislature for continuing “to earmark scores of local water projects that are submitted as member projects, circumventing formal, competitive selection processes and a comprehensive, coordinated, statewide strategy.”
Local transportation projects drew fire too. The Legislature funded 144 projects totaling close to $210.9 million, nearly all of it from the State Transportation Trust Fund, which is supposed to support projects vetted through the Florida Department of Transportation’s Work Program.
Using those funds for unvetted projects undermines statewide infrastructure planning, TaxWatch personnel said. But it’s hardly unprecedented.
“Historically, all projects in this line-item have been put on the Budget Turkey list,” the report said.
Cultural grants skirt rankings as education and safety earmarks grow
Despite receiving vetted rankings from the Florida Department of State for $20.8 million worth of projects, lawmakers cut the full list of eligible cultural and historic grants and instead approved unranked or lower-ranked member items.
They included $2.5 million for the Jacksonville Museum of Science and History, close to $2.3 million for the Orlando Museum of Art and $1 million for the Bay of Pigs Museum and Library in Miami.
In all, the Legislature diverted $11.6 million to unranked cultural facilities, including some projects that were also requesting money through the now-defunded grant system, Florida TaxWatch said.
The budget includes 101 school and instructional enhancement projects totaling $54.6 million. Most are local, one-off efforts by private groups and did not undergo any competitive review process.
Florida TaxWatch also flagged $109.2 million that lawmakers allocated to 89 local law enforcement projects, $66.3 million for 74 local fire service projects, $36.1 million for 33 emergency management facilities and programs, and $77.8 million for so-called “housing and community development projects” that often fall outside that description and mostly “have other avenues for funding assistance.”
Late additions and rule violations
Florida TaxWatch spotlighted three projects that lawmakers added during the budget conference process — when public oversight is minimal — despite being prohibited from doing so by joint legislative rules.
They included $8.5 million for a Veterans and First Responder Facility at the University of South Florida, $5 million for the University of Central Florida’s Discovery and Innovation Hub, and $350,000 for a pier and kayak launch in Brevard County that secured other funding earlier in the budgeting process.
The House also violated its own Rule 5.14(F) by funding four projects at less than half their requested amounts: $2 million for widening of State Road 369 in Leon County, $500,000 for a Panama City Beach mobile command center, $350,000 for a school zone safety project in Panama City, and $187,500 for an Orange City police facility.
Florida TaxWatch Senior Vice President of Research Kurt Wenner said in a statement that the lack of a systematic review and selection process in some areas of the budget is “a glaring problem.”
“Member projects are peppered throughout the budget, but there are several line-items where numerous projects end up, and the number of projects that are funded in these line-items is increasing,” he said.
“Not that long ago, funding for some of these types of local projects was rare. Funding them through the state budget has now become standard. Florida TaxWatch recommends that, if the Legislature is going to fund such projects, it must create a competitive review and selection process in statute for each of these areas.”
