{"id":300169,"date":"2026-06-08T17:30:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T17:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/300169\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T17:30:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T17:30:24","slug":"florida-taxwatch-calls-out-830-million-in-budget-turkeys-in-2026-27-state-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/300169\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida TaxWatch calls out $830 million in budget turkeys in 2026-27 state budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

As state leaders chide local governments for misspending taxpayer money, Florida TaxWatch is accusing the Legislature of having plenty of budget turkeys of their own.<\/p>\n

Florida TaxWatch<\/a> released its annual turkey list, which slammed 621 projects that cost taxpayers $830 million in the 2026-27 state budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s proliferated. In my view, it\u2019s a problem. Two thousand member projects are in this budget,\u201d Florida TaxWatch CEO Jeff Kottkamp said during a news conference Monday<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s incredible. We\u2019re simply every year looking more and more out like Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida TaxWatch\u2019s report was released Monday after the Legislature approved a $114.5 billion budget late last month<\/a>. The nonpartisan nonprofit is urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to scrutinize the state budget to eliminate wasteful spending.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be clear, and this is important, by no means are we passing judgment on a project\u2019s merit value or need,\u201d said Kottkamp, a former lawmaker and Lieutenant Governor. \u201cWith this report, we are simply holding legislators accountable for Floridians\u2019 hard-earned taxpayer dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some of the biggest budget turkeys were for lawmakers\u2019 344 water projects totaling $380 million that circumvented an official, competitive review, Florida TaxWatch said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Legislature should adhere to the processes it created to fund water projects\u2014the Water Quality Improvement Grant Program (WQI),\u201d the report said. \u201cFlorida TaxWatch recommends that the Governor review each water project closely in his veto deliberations, determining if there is a compelling need for the project and whether it meets the criteria of the WQI Grant Program, including the relative ability of the local government to fund the project.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Legislature also appropriated funding $29.3 million for 41 local parks instead of funding grant programs administered by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should be noted that colleges and universities received none of the funding ($124.0 million and $97.4 million, respectively) they requested for maintenance and repair of facilities,\u201d the Florida TaxWatch report said. \u201cAll $260.2 million of the PECO funding in the new budget for Maintenance, Repair, Renovation, and Remodeling went to public charter schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other member projects to promote boating, the arts and transportation all escaped a more thorough review and oversight, Florida TaxWatch said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Department of State\u2019s ranked recommended funding list for Special Category Grants totaled $23.3 million. Neither chamber\u2019s budget funded the program, which provides up to $500,000 for the restoration and acquisition of historic properties. This left the 55 projects approved and recommended by the Department of State and the Florida Historical Commission without funding,\u201d the Florida TaxWatch report said. \u201cInstead, the final budget funded 10 member projects ($6.7 million), including at least one project (Eckerd Hall) that does not appear to be a historic preservation project.\u201d<\/p>\n

To get dubbed the unfortunate nickname means the state budget appropriated funding to lawmakers\u2019 pet programs, or to projects that abruptly appeared during budget conference without any public testimony during the Session.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot all member projects are turkeys, but most turkeys are member projects,\u201d said Kurt Wenner, Florida TaxWatch\u2019s Senior Vice President of Research.<\/p>\n

Other budget turkeys carry no statewide impact and affect only a small local area.<\/p>\n

Under DeSantis\u2019 urging, the Legislature approved putting a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to overhaul local property taxes. The GOP rallying call has been that local governments are misusing taxpayers\u2019 dollars and homeowners deserve property tax relief. Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia has traveled around the state and auditing local governments\u2019 budgets.<\/p>\n

But Florida TaxWatch also warned that the Legislature itself is also increasing the number of budget turkeys every year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Legislature has been rightly criticizing local governments for rapidly increasing budgets, property taxes, calling them to only fund core services and saying that there\u2019s too much wasteful spending,\u201d Wenner said. \u201cDespite all this, legislators continue to fund billions of dollars for projects in their districts, rewarding local governments that may not be sufficiently protecting taxpayers. While many of these projects could be worthwhile, many more are hardly priorities or even essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wenner and Kottkamp said the state could face shortfalls in the future if the Legislature\u2019s spending trajectory continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have some discipline,\u201d Kottkamp said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As state leaders chide local governments for misspending taxpayer money, Florida TaxWatch is accusing the Legislature of having…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[126129,11592,74811,126130,126131,28,30,29,80195,101890,104712,412],"class_list":["post-300169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-2026-budget-turkeys","tag-2026-legislature","tag-2026-27-budget","tag-budget-turkey-list","tag-budget-turkey-report","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-taxwatch","tag-jeff-kottkamp","tag-kurt-wenner","tag-ron-desantis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}