A newly elected legislature overturned eight of outgoing Gov. Charlie Crist’s vetoes, including a $9.7 million budget appropriation for Shands Teaching Hospital, during a special session Tuesday.
The morning started with the swearing in of a super-majority Republican Legislature.
Republicans currently have a majority of 81-39 in the House and 28-12 in the Senate.
Having a super-majority, two-thirds of the legislature, means Republicans have the ability to overturn vetoes.
In a speech to the Legislature, Senate President Mike Haridopolos, who is a professor at UF, promised to “spend less” and practice more “slim government.”
In the special session that followed, all eight vetoes on the agenda were overturned — including millions in spending — and four new pieces of legislation were passed.
The overturned veto for Shands’ budget appropriation means the hospital can expect to get about $15 million this year with matching federal funds included.
The funds pay for some medical residencies and the cost of treating the uninsured and the poor from around the state, said Belita Moreton, director of government relations for Shands HealthCare.
According to Moreton, had the veto not been overridden, the hospital would have had to make drastic budget cuts, admit fewer underfunded Medicaid and charity patients, and eliminate several medical residencies, psychiatric units and bed burn units.
For the past 30 years, the funds had always been approved annually for Shands, until being vetoed for the first time by Crist in the summer, saying the hospital shouldn’t receive special treatment.
“That particular veto was kind of inexplicable. Nobody saw it coming,” said political science professor Kenneth D. Wald. “Nobody understands why he did it.”
