With Florida’s Fiscal Year 2026-27 budget now signed, one of Florida’s most scrutinizing government watchdog groups is warning about changes needed for future budgets.
Officials with Florida TaxWatch assessed the final budget, including vetoes issued by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Those vetoes racked up $1.7 billion in cuts, including $810 million in line-item vetoes.
“Florida TaxWatch reviewed this year’s budget for (Fiscal Year) 2026-27 and identified 621 items totaling $829.7 million that qualified as ‘Budget Turkeys’ — appropriations that bypassed or violated established budget procedures or legislative and public scrutiny,” said TaxWatch President and CEO Jeff Kottkamp.
“In addition to projects that qualify as Budget Turkeys, Florida TaxWatch highlighted other areas in the budget, which included an additional 484 (legislative) member projects totaling $441.1 million. The FY2026-27 budget included nearly 2,000 local member projects worth $2.7 billion. The vast majority of vetoed appropriations were member projects, and this is yet another indication that the member project process is out of control.”
Kottkamp said DeSantis vetoed 184 out of the 621 appropriations from the budget the group wanted slashed. That’s a cut of about $130.9 million in savings for Floridians, he said.
But Kottkamp added that TaxWatch actually flagged some 342 projects that were worth a total of $229.7 million that should have been given “especially close scrutiny” by the Governor.
Kottkamp said Florida’s credit standing is solid. But that could be threatened if there is continued “turkey” spending.
“While the Sunshine State continues to enjoy a AAA credit rating, with nearly $18 billion in reserves, we caution future legislatures to be prudent with taxpayer dollars. As noted in our Budget Turkey Report, we are particularly troubled by the proliferation of local member projects in the budget that do not address a statewide need or a need in a fiscally constrained county,” Kottkamp said.
“We applaud the Governor for using his veto pen to eliminate many of the items we identified as ‘Turkeys’ from the budget. Florida TaxWatch will never stop advocating for the hardworking taxpayers of our state and ensuring that taxpayer dollars are allocated through a transparent, accountable, and deliberative process.”
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