As we wait for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to sign the budget, a non-partisan group is listing items they think should by cut.
Florida TaxWatch has released the 2019 Budget Turkey Watch Report, and several projects in Northeast Florida are included.
Dominic M. Calabro is the President and CEO of Florida TaxWatch. He says making the list doesn't mean the project is a bad idea, it just means the organization believes the project could use a little more scrutiny.
The list is also not connected to DeSantis in any way, and Calabro says it's strictly a tool for guidance if he chooses to use it.
"It's basically to help ensure the tax payers see that their tax dollars are spent with accountability," Calabro says.
The review focuses on the budget process and attempts to point out projects that serve a limited area instead of being statewide. It also tries to identify projects that are not core functions of government or should by funded through other avenues, according to the report.
The proposed 2019-10 state budget is worth $91.1 billion, and the report identifies 109 projects as Budget Turkeys worth a total of $133 million.
The list of Budget Turkeys includes 19 projects in Northeast Florida.
A renovation project at the University of North Florida's Lassiter Hall along with beach projects in Fernandina Beach and St. Johns County are on the list. Projects at Freedom Park in Jacksonville, the Maccleny Youth Soccer Field in Baker County and the Moccasin Slough Educational Center for Natural Resources in Clay County are on the list.
There are six area transportation projects on the list. Nassau and St. Johns counties have two of those projects each, while Clay and Duval counties have one.
The report identifies the restoration project at the Clay County Historic Courthouse and the expansion project at the Camp Blanding Museum as two Turkeys.
The part of the report that focuses on projects that were not passed by either the House or Senate has two submissions from the area. One involves the YMCA of Florida's First Coast and the other is with the Nassau County Youth Alternative to Secured Detention program.
Duval, St. Johns and Clay counties all have one item listed in the final category. Those are a project at Flagler College in St. Augustine, one at a youth sports complex in Clay and an urban core workforce housing project in Jacksonville.
The report started in 1983 and has been published annually since 1986.
"Governors used us through the various years, sometimes vetoing as much as 90 percent of our list," says Calabro. "On average about close to 67 percent."
