Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown Slams Rick Scott, Misrepresents TaxWatch, Gets Smacked Down by RPOF

Jacksonville's Mayor Alvin Brown is being hailed in many quarters, even conservative ones, as one of the Democratic Party's rising stars, drawing praise even from many Republicans for the way he has governed Florida's largest city -- and a traditional GOP stronghold -- since his upset election in May 2011.

But today the mayor, who's garnered a reputation for being something of a fiscal conservative, came out swinging against Gov. Rick Scott for one of this morning's budgetary line-item vetoes:

I am very disappointed by this veto of [the Learn2Earn program in Jacksonville]. The Governor and his team have once again let down hundreds of Jacksonville children and families.

We have worked very hard to educate Governor Scott and his team about this critical program. We provided them with ample information about how it benefits at-risk Jacksonville high school students who dream of going to college. We were pleased to see that Florida TaxWatch recognized the value of this program and did not recommend a veto of this appropriation. The Governor pledged to give us a final chance to make our case before a decision was made, but that chance never happened.

Despite the Governors action today, my team and I will find a way to move forward with this summers program. We arent going to turn our backs on these kids and their families being able to participate in the Learn2Earn experience.

To which Republican Party of Florida Chair Lenny Curry has replied:

"Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown's attack on Governor Rick Scott is over the top. How can an additional $1 billion of funding into K-12 schools be considered a 'failure to support youths'? How can giving teachers well-deserved pay raises beconsidered 'lettingdown hundreds of Jacksonville children and families'? The Governor and our GOP-ledLegislaturehave achieved the largest state-based contribution to total education funding inFlorida'shistory. Governor Scott wants to make sure that all educational programs that receive taxpayer funding can show how they will measure success."

Brown deserves one more correction: His statement that "Florida TaxWatchrecognized the value of [the Learn2Earn] program" is flat-out wrong.As TaxWatch itself has repeatedly emphasized, exclusion of an item from the annual "Turkey Watch Report" does not constitute an endorsement of theappropriation much less a "recognition of its value." Whether an item is labeled a "turkey" depends solely on whether it was placed in the budget after receiving what TaxWatch believes is an appropriate amount of procedural scrutiny.

We want to make clear that the turkey label does not mean that we are condemning the worthiness of the project or even making a judgment on that project, asKurt Wenner, TaxWatch's vice president for tax research, told reporters on Friday. The Turkey Report focuses on the budget [process], to make sure everything receives the scrutiny that it should.