House Democrats reached into their transitive property bag today to paint Republican Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton as against the federal stimulus package and therefore against Gov. Charlie Crist and Florida’s families.

To do so, Democrats pulled a quote from this Post story, which, ironically, was a report about the bipartisan finger pointing in the House and the chamber’s reluctance (just like Crist) to support deep cuts or new revenues to deal with a $3 billion shortfall.

Hasner, meanwhile, defended his own honor with this press release. He insists Crist and the legislature are on the same page, and that lawmakers are just waiting for the Obama Administration to release details about the federal waiver needed to collect stimulus money for schools. Hasner writes:

“Until the Obama Administration gives their final answer on a federal waiver, the Legislature cannot accept stimulus dollars that have not been offered.”

So does this mean Republican leaders will wait to put $1 billion in stimulus money into their K-12 budget proposal until the stimulus arrives? We’ll find out this week when House lawmakers begin assembling the 2009-10 budget this week.

In other House press release wars, Rep. Adam Fetterman, D-Port St. Lucie, blasted the other side of the aisle late last week, putting the blame at their feet for St. Lucie County closing two schools and laying off 157 teachers next year to handle budget shortfalls.

“Frankly, I’m disgusted. The priorities in Tallahassee are so backwards it’s no wonder people have lost faith in their state government,” said Representative Fetterman. “When the Republican leadership’s budgetary policy means we are closing “A”-rated schools, we know their policies are a failure. Their lip service about putting children first is hollow; their actions speak louder than words.”

In his response, Hasner takes credit for the “A” grade received by one of the closing schools, but says Democrats refused their opportunity to repeal sales tax exemptions.

Tags: Adam Fetterman, Adam Hasner, Democrats, Republicans, stimulus

This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 9:06 pm and is filed under legislature, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.