Rep. Bo Johnson, D-Milton, also said he did not know that lottery money funded the trip. But he defended the trip as a legitimate use of lottery dollars because access to Israeli research could aid the private sector in Florida.

"The idea of the lottery is to enhance education. If we're able to use experience that's a model for the world and bring that to Florida and help with water conservation programs, that's a proper use, " he said.

Rep. Jack Tobin, D-Margate, thought other funds paid for the trip. "I believe there are other sources of funding the institute gets, " he said. "The trip we went on was a no-frills, all-work trip, " he said. Tobin also took his wife, and likewise paid for her expenses.

Sen. Gwen Margolis, who was then chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, did not return repeated phone calls.

The Florida-Brazil Institute also took a trip to Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia on lottery dollars from Nov. 22 to 28, 1989. Three members of the House Committee on Commerce went along.

The trip was arranged at the request of Rep. Art Simon, chairman of the committee, which was researching the impact of a trade promotion bill. The institute provided documents showing it paid for the air fare for Simon, Huenink and Rep. Ron Saunders with discount airline tickets that cost $1,639 apiece for the round trip.

Simon, D-Kendall, said he did not know that lottery money paid for the trip, but he was aware that the lottery financed the institutes. He said the issue was debated in the Legislature, and everyone, including bureaucrats, agreed it was a good use of lottery dollars.

"The linkage institutes can serve a very valuable function, " he said. "It is absolutely an enhancement."

Simon said he had been asked by House Speaker Tom Gustafson to look into the linkage program to see if it was a good use of public dollars. A new commission created by the Legislature will also be charged with looking into the institutes next year.

"There isn't any other way but to go down and see what they're doing, " Simon said. "It's the same as going to a program in Opa-locka or anywhere else."

Saunders said he was surprised to learn that lottery money paid for the tickets. "The commerce committee handled all of it, " he said. "All we did was go."

In addition to the institutes, the governor's staff also questioned whether lottery dollars should fund the Beacon Council's study of the South Florida economy.

The staff noted it "was not requested by the agency, is located in an inappropriate department and budget entity and is of questionable statewide educational benefit. Duplicates current data collection efforts at various post-secondary institutions. Was not in the House or Senate bills."

It was lobbyist Bob Levy's idea to get lottery dollars to fund the study, which was done by the South Florida Economic Research Foundation, an arm of the Beacon Council. Research for the study was done by staff at Florida Atlantic University, Barry University and the University of Miami.

Levy said he was tracking the item as a favor for the Beacon Council when he discovered that there was no money in the budget for it.

Levy said he then agreed to find money for the item -- for a contingency fee equal to 10 percent of the appropriation. He joined forces with lobbyist Fausto Gomez, who split the fee with him.

They "identified a pot that fit the parameters of what we were looking for, " Levy said. "The pot we took it from was education."

More specifically, they identified the educational enhancement trust fund. Levy and Gomez said they then persuaded legislators in the House and Senate to make sure the item was funded. They also lobbied the governor to make sure it wasn't vetoed.

According to the budget item, the money was necessary "for the collection of data critical to economic development in South Florida, some of which are presently not available and some of which are available only in numbers not adjusted for explosive population growth, immigration, and unsurveyed minority interests."

Beacon Council president Tom Ferguson didn't know that any of the money came from lottery dollars. Did he think it was a good use of lottery funds?

"I can't tell you, " he said. "It's probably a better question for the policymakers than me."