State budget appropriations of $1.75 million and $500,000 for the Okaloosa County Health Department and $85,635 for the Okaloosa County Library Cooperative have been flagged as legislative “turkeys” by Florida TaxWatch.
The annual list, issued after each legislative session, spotlights expenditures placed in the state budget “without proper opportunity for public review and debate,” according to this year’s report.
Like most of the projects on the TaxWatch list, the Health Department allocations were added in conference near the end of the budget process.
The Health Department stands to receive $1.2 million to fund two mobile dental units and one mobile medical unit to provide services throughout the county. Another $550,000 was set aside to staff and operate the mobile units.
The agency also would receive $500,000 to renovate its aging facilities. The money would be used to upgrade the clinic in Crestview and improve lighting and bathrooms in Fort Walton Beach.
“The demand for Health Department services is growing and we are at maximum capacity,” said Andrea Sutrick, public information officer for the Health Department. “The renovations will address those growth problems by making services easier for clients to access.”
The $85,635 allocated to the Library Cooperative would restore state aid it failed to receive during the 2011-12 fiscal year because of a filing error, said Vicky Stever, coordinator of the cooperative.
“This isn’t an extra project or a new project or new money,” Stever said.
The TaxWatch report says the library allocation “did not go through the library grant process.”
But Senate President Don Gaetz of Niceville, who helped the cooperative get the state aid restored, said the allocation was discussed in public committees multiple times.
Read a statement from Gaetz. >>
Stever said the loss of the $85,635 previously “was just like getting a huge budget cut” and cost her a staff position.
“We cut back on services and the way we support the (member) libraries,” she said.
Each year Florida TaxWatch calls attention to projects that have bypassed established procedures within the Legislature and often aren’t introduced “until the very last minute” of the session, said Kurt Wenner, vice president of tax research for the group.
“It isn’t about the value or the worth of the project. ….. It’s highlighting for the governor things that we believe didn’t get enough review,” Wenner added.
This year, the group has flagged 107 budget items worth almost $107 million statewide that Gov. Rick Scott should consider for vetoes.
No budget turkeys were identified for Walton or Santa Rosa counties.
Gaetz said all of the local items being scrutinized were “proposed in public, discussed in public and voted on in public.”
“And if Florida TaxWatch was troubled by any of these items, I find it strange that no one … testified in writing or verbally before any committee of the House or Senate to point out the problems they had with these projects,” Gaetz said. “There’s a term for that. It’s called political cowardice. If you want to participate in debating the merits of the budget, then you ought to step up in the public square and offer testimony.”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Kari C. Barlow at 850-315-4438 or kbarlow@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KariBnwfdn