State financial watchdog Florida TaxWatch says next year’s budget has more than 130 million in budget turkeys.
Turkeys are individual lawmaker projects often quickly added to the budget with little oversight in the final days of session.
They make up just a portion of this year’s total member projects, a record 829— more than $500 million in tax dollars.
The $93.2 billion-dollar budget was approved by the legislature in March.
It includes hundreds of millions for teacher and state worker raises, plus money for affordable housing projects.
To avoid cutting them and offset COVID-19’s revenue losses, TaxWatch’s CEO recommended Florida approve a Seminal gaming compact and e-fairness regulations for online retailers.
“Move the burden from individual taxpayers, senior citizens, small business owners to the large remote seller that’s not only out of Florida, sometimes is out of the country. Could even be China, invading our markets and not collecting the sales and use tax," said Dominic M. Calabro, Florida TaxWatch President and CEO
Governor Ron DeSantis has yet to announce his veto picks. He has until the end of the month to approve the new budget, which starts July 1st.
