Charlie Crist vetoes $371 million in lawmakers’ priorities
With little pomp and no public availability, Gov. Charlie Crist signed the state’s $70 billion state budget Friday, vetoing $371 million in lawmaker spending priorities. Crist’s list of line-item cuts include a $160 million sweep of dollars out of the transportation trust fund, a cut to the state’s Medicaid reimbursement rates for nursing homes, and a ban on using tax dollars flowing into the state to support human embryonic stem cell research. Crist has stepped up his criticism of lawmakers’ budget handiwork in recent weeks, intimating…