Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson pushed Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander to expedite the release of Florida’s share of the federal economic stimulus package to get the state’s jobless back to work.

Alexander agreed that lawmakers need to move quickly to get the money already available for road and water projects that could create jobs the fastest.

He said he’d like to get the budget committees working on passing bills as early as tomorrow to appropriate the federal funds for the construction projects and for Medicaid spending. Depending on the House’s position, the legislature could pass the budget amendments as early as next week, he said.

Gov. Charlie Crist appointed Don Winstead to act as the state’s “recovery czar” last week.

But despite the necessary legislative approval for the spending to begin, Winstead has yet to meet with Alexander.

When asked how closely he’s been working with Winstead Alexander hesitated.

“Hm. Um. Well, we probably need to get together with Mr. Winstead to find out what he’s got on his mind. That’s a good point,” said Alexander, R-Lake Wales.

So not that closely, Alexander was asked.

”Not yet. But that’s a good point. We’ll be meeting with him today, if he can come see us,” Alexander promised.

Alexander learned later that Winstead met with his aide yesterday.

Crist is sending Winstead to Washington tomorrow to attend Vice President Joe Biden’s recovery conference.

Tags: Charlie Crist, state budget, State House, State Senate, stimulus

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Charlie Crist, elections, legislature, Property taxes, Ray Sansom, state budget, State House, State Senate, stimulus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.