Senate Prez: Crist education proposal too rosy
by Dara Kam | January 27th, 2010Gov. Charlie Crist’s proposed $500 million boost to education spending based on an unlikely gambling agreement is unrealistic, Senate President Jeff Atwater said this morning.
“The numbers that I would see at this moment that were included in that release did seem to be a bit optimistic,” Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said at a meeting of reporters and editors.
Crist’s $22.7 billion public education budget, released Monday, relies on about $433 million from the Seminole Tribe of Florida now sitting in the bank as part of a deal with the state allowing certain types of gambling at the tribe’s casinos.
But the legislature has refused to sign off on a deal inked by Crist and the tribe and early indications show that an agreement this year remains in doubt.
“We worked hard on a gaming compact and we’re not done but to just plug in the numbers that I saw was rather optimistic,” Atwater, who is running for chief financial officer said.
Tags: 2010 campaigns, Charlie Crist, education, Jeff Atwater, state budget
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January 27th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Jeff Atwater’s 1st name should be Richard because he is one!
Last year he agreed, on his own, to allow the garbage collector that services unincorp PBC to raise their rates 5%. Dick Jeff said they needed an increase because the garbagemen had received a 5% raise. I would like to hear from the employees of that hauler if they actually received a pay increase.
I, unfortunately, did not receive any pay raise a fact that Dick Jeff could care less about. I hope the fleas of a thousand camels invade your body.