Which local projects in the state budget will survive? It’s up to Gov. Scott’s veto
When the largest state budget in Florida history crosses Gov. Rick Scott’s desk, he is expected to use his line-item veto power, as he has in past years, to trim spending by up to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Scott’s pen is the final hurdle for hundreds of local projects sponsored by lawmakers for constituents back home — but it is a high hurdle to vault. The governor has slashed more money from the budget — about $2.3 billion in line-item spending, not counting last year’s school budget — than any other Florida chief executive, calling much of that spending unnecessary or wasteful.
Many of those local projects are standard municipal fare, including money for water and sewer projects, housing, transit, emergencies, and local cultural and educational projects. They are also a fraction of the projects proposed by legislators every year during session — others never even make it into the state budget, blocked by legislative leaders who have final negotiating power on its contents before it is sent to the governor.
That was especially true this year because of the additional money needed for a variety of last-minute expenses, not least of which was the state’s $400 million response to the Parkland shooting. The projects that made it in this year, in large part, were those sponsored by lawmakers who supported the narrowly passed Parkland bill in the final days of session.
“It could have been a lot worse as to the budget,” said Sen. Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, who headed the Miami-Dade delegation. “I think everyone [in the delegation] had a good showing.”
Among this year’s projects for South Florida: $2.1 million for senior housing in Hialeah, more than $8 million for the free-to-attend SEED School of Miami for low-income students and a spate of water and drainage projects from Miami Lakes to North Miami. Smaller projects made it in too: $45,000 for fixing HVAC units at WPBT-TV in Miami and even $150,000 for a cattle call — the Miami International Agricultural, Horse and Cattle Show — though the latter was vetoed last year.
Monroe County, in particular, landed several local projects aimed at further recovery, from the damage Hurricane Irma wrought last fall. Legislators agreed to nearly $6 million for its new emergency operations center, $15 million in affordable housing and $5 million for sewage and water projects across the Keys.
“I got a very fair amount considering our state’s priorities and the priorities of [my district],” said Rep. Holly Raschein, who represents the Keys. “Given a perfect world, we’d be in a different situation right now, but that’s not what we’re dealing with.”
Raschein said she had requested $15 million for the emergency center, though it was knocked down to $5.9 million in the final state budget. “There are other sources of funding we can complete that with,” she said.
Just because they’ve made it into this year’s budget isn’t a guarantee — though funding for Irma-related expenses, a stated priority of Scott’s, is likelier to escape a veto. Projects in this year’s package have been included in past budgets and rejected.
Rep. Shevrin Jones, D-West Park, whose district includes economically distressed neighborhoods in South Broward County, got $650,000 in the budget for 42 pedestrian street lights on the east side of U.S. 441/State Road 7, as requested for the last two years.
Jones said the state Department of Transportation put in lights on the west side, which borders Miramar, but not on the east side in his hometown of West Park.
“How can you put lights on one side of the street and not the other?” Jones asked. “There’s no equity in how dollars are given.”
Jones said the project, which benefits a predominantly African-American community, has been vetoed repeatedly, but he’ll keep asking for it.
Miami-Dade projects
These tables include a selection of programs or projects receiving funding in the 2018-19 state budget.
Project description | City or agency | Amount |
HVAC repairs at WPBT-TV, Miami | Miami | $45,000 |
Lighthouse for the Blind | Miami | $150,000 |
Biscayne Park infrastructure | Miami | $400,000 |
Biscayne Green | Miami | $1,000,000 |
SEED School of Miami | Opa-locka | $8,173,678 |
Holocaust Memorial | Miami Beach | $333,499, plus $66,501 in recurring base appropriations |
Homeless Trust | Miami-Dade County | $250,000 |
Agape Village community health and residential treatment facility | Miami | $500,000 |
Community Smiles, partnering with the Miami Children’s pediatric dental residency program | Miami Children’s Hospital | $283,643 |
Fire station | Sweetwater | $200,000 |
State Road 826/N.E. 163rd Street Improvements | North Miami Beach | $1,000,000 |
Multi-modal transit station | Palmetto Bay | $328,912 |
Opa-locka Airport service center | Opa-locka | $2,500,000 |
Master force main installation | North Miami Beach | $400,000 |
Arch Creek north/south drainage improvements | North Miami | $496,750 |
West drainage improvements Phase 3 | Miami Lakes | $500,000 |
Royal Oaks drainage improvements | Miami Lakes | $500,000 |
North Beach business incubator | Miami Beach | $200,000 |
96th Street drainage improvements | Medley | $500,000 |
Activities & nutrition center | Little Havana | $100,000 |
Senior Center - Jewish Community Services of South Florida | Miami Beach | $158,367 |
Canal bank stabilization Year 7 | Doral | $950,000 |
Cuban-American Bar Association | $200,000 | |
Fire station at Cartagena Park | Coral Gables | $1,500,000 |
Emergency operations center | Coral Gables | $1,500,000 |
Village infrastructure improvements | Bal Harbour | $500,000 |
NE 183rd Street seawall restoration | Aventura | $200,000 |
Alonzo Mourning Family Foundation | Miami | $500,000 |
Homebound meals for at-risk elderly | Allapattah | $361,543 |
Miami Military Museum and Memorial Education Center | $800,000 | |
Miami Beach coastal flooding hazard research project | FIU | $327,227 |
Fire-Rescue Department mobile command vehicle | Miami | $400,000 |
Casa Familia housing for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities | Miami | $250,000 |
Design district infrastructure improvements | Miami | $500,000 |
Improvements to city-owned elderly housing buildings | Hialeah | $2,100,000 |
International Agriculture, Horse and Cattle Show for promotional activities | Miami | $150,000 |
Voices for Children Foundation | Miami-Dade | $100,000 |
Miami Project to Cure Paralysis | $1,000,000 | |
Florida Stroke Registry | UM Miller School of Medicine | $500,000 |
Citrus Health Network | Miami-Dade | $750,000 |
Institute for Child and Family Health | Miami-Dade | $750,000 |
Adults with Disabilities Program | Miami-Dade | $1,125,208 |
Jackson Memorial Hospital for the South Florida AIDS Network | Miami | $719,989 |
Engineering building | FIU | $10,641,537 |
Jewish Community Center | North Miami | $39,468 |
St. Ann’s Nursing Center | Miami | $65,084 |
Broward projects
Project description | City or agency | Amount |
Emergency Operations Center | Dania Beach | $100,000 |
Lauren’s Kids | $1,500,000 | |
Fire Station No. 58 Replacement | Margate | $1,000,000 |
Sewer piping rehabilitation project | Margate | $500,000 |
Memorial Healthcare all hazards response & recovery | $1,000,000 | |
Natalie’s Cove at Flamingo Gardens | Cooper City | $500,000 |
Pompano Beach Blount Road streetscape improvements | Pompano Beach | $250,000 |
Green Meadows drainage project | Southwest Ranches | $500,000 |
Emergency lift station | Sunrise | $734,764 |
Commercial Boulevard gateway improvements | Tamarac | $500,000 |
Urban League | Broward County | $2,437,835 |
Urban League Regional Entrepreneurship Center | Broward County | $710,000 |
African-American Memorial Park | Deerfield Beach | $400,000 |
West Park pedestrian lights on 441/SR 7 | West Park | $650,000 |
Austin Hepburn Senior Mini Center | Hallandale Beach | $82,080 |
South Florida Holocaust Museum permanent exhibition | Dania Beach | $500,000 |
Lippman Senior Center | Hollywood | $228,000 |
Monroe projects
Project description | City or agency | Amount |
Association for ReMARcable Citizens | Monroe County | $100,000 |
Mobile vessel pumpout program funding | Monroe County | $277,650 |
Sewage and water projects | Islamorada, Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District, Marathon, Monroe County/Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority, Key West, and Key Colony Beach | $5,000,000 |
Emergency Operations & Public Safety Center | Monroe County | $5,900,000 |
Building moderate income housing | Florida Keys | $15,000,000 |
Keys Area Health Education Center | Florida Keys | $250,000 |
Florida Keys Community College — Key West Collegiate Academy classroom & storm shelter | Florida Keys | $5,000,000 |
Florida Keys Community College Hurricane Gap Funding | Florida Keys | $250,000 |
Temporary modular hospital at Fishermen’s Community Hospital | $500,000 |
Herald/Times research
This story was originally published March 13, 2018 at 5:55 PM with the headline "Which local projects in the state budget will survive? It’s up to Gov. Scott’s veto."