This isn't even fun anymore.
Typically, we'd thumb our noses to authority over any kind of miscarriage of budgeting, but this one's just too easy. It sucks the joy right out of it.
Now, Gov. Rick Scott is just pissing us off.
Scott, a member of the so-called "party of no," solidified himself as the "governor of no" when he vetoed a record $615 million from the budget.
This translates into a loss of about $12 million of funding for UF, a figure that leaves some university projects in limbo.
Money for a statewide research effort on brain tumors?
"Sorry, thanks for playing."
Some cash to help out a local community health clinic run by UF's College of Nursing?
"No soup for you!"
A little dough to fix stuff when it breaks?
"Nah trick nah!"
The shocker was that $5.3 million for maintenance and repairs. That forces UF officials to make tough decisions should a situation arise where serious repairs to infrastructure are needed.
We better hope this unbearable heat doesn't knock one of our air conditioning systems out, or this place may start to feel like a real swamp.
We know the tired logic behind his hatred of spending: You can't just throw money at the problem.
Well, Mr. Scott, you can't horde your way into prosperity, either.
We understand cuts have to be made and not everything is going to survive those cuts. Perhaps the research and academic facility at Lake Nona can stand to be put on hold for now.
But vetoing funding for programs that actually have some scientific standing is no way to go about digging a technology-and-innovation-starved state out of the hole it's in.
Focusing on the results, a method Slick Rick is quick to support, involves taking time and yes, spending a little coin.
So he refused to fund what he considers "wasteful spending." But not only does he insult the importance of local projects, but he turns the signing of the budget into a members-only party.
When he signed the budget at The Villages Thursday, a group of Democrats was unceremoniously ejected from the proceeding.
Sorry, liberals. No to you, too!
Sumter County sheriff's deputies said the event was "private" as they kicked the group out.
Problem is, it wasn't.
Scott's people maintain that it was a public event. The Villages Daily Sun, the local newspaper, advertised it as such.
The deputies had received their instructions from a special assistant to Scott, Russ Abrams, who refused to talk to the press on the issue.
Guess there is a new sheriff in town.
A Scott aide made a stupid mistake that makes his boss look like partisan schoolboy sitting in his tree house with a big sign nailed on the side: NO DEMS ALLOWED!
Well, Scott doesn't really need much help with projecting that image. He's already etched himself into Florida's history as a incredibly unpopular man with stubborn and highly unreasonable beliefs about how to cope with budget issues.
For a man who daily rapes the state of Florida, "no" is just another word in the way of the red pen.
