Published: Saturday, May 1, 2010 at 10:46 p.m.
TALLAHASSEE | The Legislature ended its work late Friday and on Saturday local governments began scouring the 500-page state budget and all of its attendant documents, trying to find what they got and what they lost.
But much of the budget is still in broad categories, and individual government projects won't be known until a county-by-county document is released in at least a week.
What is known is that University of South Florida Polytechnic in Lakeland did well with $62 million in total funds over a multiyear period for construction at its proposed new campus, $10 million to build a school of pharmacy building and $1 million for wellness research.
Polk County did receive $8 million under the Agency for Workforce Innovation voluntary pre-kindergarten education.
Polk State College received construction funds for its main campus in Winter Haven, including $1.2 million for renovations of infrastructure and site improvements, $10.2 million for renovation and remodeling of its Learning Resource Center and $2 million for construction for its Institute of Public Safety.
In a last-minute agreement in the budget conference committee, $6.9 million was set aside to construct a new public health department clinic in Haines City.
But there are other areas that had to give up money. Cindy Rodriguez, who is the county's lobbyist, said Polk didn't ask for specifically funded projects this year because of the lean budget. But there are some general areas of service the county provides that worry her.
One is the road projects, with the House convincing the Senate to make the huge raid on the Transportation Road Fund. Rodriguez said the county does not yet know what projects will be delayed in Polk and its cities.
"I am really worried about funding for Healthy Families," she said of the program for mothers and pregnant women from low-income backgrounds. "I am pretty sure it is not good."
State Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, said that money for mental health and the developmentally disabled programs was slashed also.
The fate of other projects will likely be known once the bulk allotments to statewide programs are assigned to individual counties and cities.
But as with all budget items, the final say is up to Gov. Charlie Crist who has the line item veto on the budget. Crist probably won't get the budget for a couple of weeks and then will have time to review the appropriations to decide if there is a particular area to veto.
He cannot move money from one area to the next, only veto specific funds.
Already the transportation contractors called on the governor Saturday to veto the entire budget, Rodriguez said.
