Gov. Crist's Ouija board budget

State Rep. Trudi Williams, R-Fort Myers, has some words of advice for Gov. Charlie Crist and his proposed $69.2 billion budget: “The first thing I would tell Gov. Crist is 'forget about it.'”

Crist's proposed budget adds $2.7 billion to last year's budget though multiple revenue sources that remain uncertain.

That proposed fiscal 2010-11 budget was based, in part, on revenue estimates made in November and the Legislature will have newer figures to work with after new estimates come out this month.

But when the House natural resources appropriations committee met Feb. 10, Crist's $50 million line-item to fund the state's land buying program, Florida Forever, was number two on the committee's priority list of items to be cut.

“We don't need to acquire any more lands,” Williams told a gathering of business leaders in Estero recently. Sitting on a panel with four other legislators, Williams, who chairs the House agriculture and natural resources policy committee, didn't mince words about hers and other legislators' feelings about taking more property off the tax rolls, adding, “It's basically silly.”

Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples, had an entertaining take on the governor's budget: “It's kind of like budgeting with a Ouija board,” referring to the board where spirits are said to govern movement.