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Scott Says He Will Use Veto Pen to Cut More Spending

May 18, 2011 | WMFE - The $69.7 billion dollar budget that Florida lawmakers hammered out during their recently concluded legislative session is now on Gov. Rick Scott's desk.

The Legislature cut spending by nearly $4 billion dollars but Scott said Tuesday he expects to exercise his prerogative to veto some line items in that budget.
“I’m going through it line by line.” Scott said. “I didn’t come up with a target number, I’m looking at each project, each line. You know, my job is I have constitutional authority to veto things.”
During Tuesday’s press conference, the governor reiterated his view that job creation is his top priority. He said he is going through the budget line by line to determine which items create jobs and which do not.
Scott made it clear, however, that he's interested only in creating private sector jobs and that some public sector jobs are still being eliminated. He declined to comment about which specific state government departments will lose personnel and sidestepped a reporter’s question about possible teacher layoffs.
A spokesman for the governor said Scott expected to make his veto decisions around Memorial Day.

 

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