Scott takes veto pen to budget

Scott takes veto pen to budget

VFW Post among the casualties

BY TERRY SCHMIDA

Florida Keys politicians and those who depend on them to bring home the bacon have been dealt yet another blow from a penny-pinching Tallahassee.

The first punch to the gut came from the Republican-held legislature whose $78 billion budget, passed on June 19, withdrew state funding for wastewater projects for the first time in years, and also reduced money for land conservation by millions of dollars.

On June 24, Gov. Rick Scott threw the Keys a left hook, by vetoing much of what little good news remained for southernmost county. The governor carved another $500 in total from the budget, including cuts to items he had already approved, according to State Representative Holly Raschein, (R) Key Largo.

“Obviously there were a couple of key projects in there that benefited the county that I’m disappointed about,” said Raschein, who voted for the budget. “It was an interesting special session. Reading through the governor’s veto letter, his explanations didn’t actually add up. He vetoed things that he had signed into law previously, which tells me that this was a very staff-driven process. My staff, and the entities who were going to receive this funding all did their jobs with due diligence.”

Among those entities is Key West architect Bert Bender, who has been working to restore the VFW Hall on Emma Street, in Bahama Village, to its former glory. Thanks to Scott’s veto pen, Bender must now find alternate revenue sources.

“It was certainly a disappointment to lose the funding,” said Bender, who serves as a trustee on the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation. “All of the special appropriations in that category of the Division of Historical Resources were cut.

While the $154,000 appropriation would not have completed our project it would have allowed us to reopen the building by providing code compliant access and emergency egress. I’m currently looking for other funding sources that might allow us to complete this phase.”

Raschein singled out Bender’s project as one of her budgetary regrets.

“The Weech Post came out of a very historic time in our nation’s history,” she said. “It’s a worthy project. Now that the dust has settled, I’m getting geared up for next year, where we’re going to have to work a little harder. Lots of others got vetoes from both parties, and lots of other water projects got vetoed. [Scott] is a very fiscally conservative man, rightfully so, and it’s his prerogative to veto. It’s his decision, whether or not we agree; that’s how the process works.”

By contrast, Raschein said she was pleased that arts and cultural funding to the Keys survived nearly unscathed.

“The one bright spot is the arts and cultural grant that almost got funded,” she said. “And education did pretty well, too. We learned some valuable lessons that we’re going to put into practice next year. I can’t hide my disappointment, but you can’t win them all, and we have had some good years in the past.”