After several northwest Florida projects were flagged as “budget turkeys,” Rep.
Jason Shoaf is making the case to Gov.
Ron DeSantis that the state should still fund these local projects.
After the 2021 Session, Shoaf, a Republican from Port St. Joe in North Florida, included among his accomplishments $1 million for the Liberty County Jail improvements, $1.2 million into the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Communication System and $650,000 for the Madison County Agricultural and Expo Center.
But now those items could be on the chopping block after being included in the Florida TaxWatch
According to Florida TaxWatch, budget turkeys are projects (usually regional) that are better funded by local or private spending, appropriations that circumvent competitive bidding or are not a core function of government. The group stresses that the turkey label doesn’t mean the project is a bad idea; they just mean that the project should not be funded either with state fu
Poor water quality and diminishing seagrass could be the reason Florida s manatees are dying at an alarming rate.
An $8 million dollar budget appropriation for manatee habitat restoration to help the state’s dying manatee population is receiving scrutiny from a government watchdog group.
But even Florida TaxWatch is going soft on Florida’s beloved sea cows, a keystone of Florida wildlife. In the group’s annual budget turkey
report, which calls out budget appropriations that are not “core functions of government” and subject to “formal, competitive selection processes,” the group acknowledged “Florida’s manatees are in crisis.” More than 700 manatees have died so far this year. That rate is almost three times the five-year average, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conversation Commission (FWC).