Gov. Charlie Crist ordered all state agencies Thursday to reduce spending by 4 percent in the coming fiscal year, just a day after signing an already pared down state budget.The reason? A decline in projected sales tax revenues.
The Times had no trouble finding folks who are outraged by this development. Here's a sample:
"It's awful. They just can't keep doing this," said Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender Bob Dillinger. "I laid 10 people off last week and didn't fill another 10 empty spots."Governor Charlie Crist (not surprisingly, since it was his idea) was less perturbed, arguing that the move was "prudent."
Interestingly, as the Times article notes, the move comes one day after Crist signed into law a state budget for next year in which Crist steadfastly refused to veto any substantial "wasteful" spending:
Crist's order comes just one day after signing the 2008-09 budget in which he sent no signal of his plan. In fact, he vetoed just $1-million in projects, far less than the $459-million he vetoed a year before.The Times doesn't speculate any further about why he acted this way. But could it be that Crist's budgetary axe couldn't find any additional fat to cut, leaving just the arbitrary "across the board cut" approach available?
