Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, is under an ethics investigation for potentially profiting off a budget item he requested for a friend.
The $1 million request for a mental health project was tucked into the budget for Florida State University’s medical school — which is not subject to Governor Rick Scott’s veto pen.
Scott told reporters he’d like to have more oversight on similar spending requests going forward.
The Naples Daily News first reported the story detailing Bean’s attempt to secure $750,000 in state funds for a mental health screening program run by Catherine Drew, wife of Nassau County Tax Collector John Drew. The Drews and Bean have been friends for years.
When lawmakers rejected his line item, $1 million for the program appeared shortly thereafter in the FSU budget.
Governor Scott has the power to veto specific budget requests, but tucking the appropriation into the university spending plan shields it from his view.
Scott said he’d like to see that change.
“It ought to be lined out so everybody knows exactly how everything is spent. I mean, everything ought to be done that way,” he said at jobs event in Jacksonville Monday. “For you as a taxpayer, you as a voter, you should know.”
Emails obtained by the Naples Daily News show Drew asking Bean to try getting the money approved through other channels and saying everyone involved would make money together.
Bean has denied he profited from the plan through a spokeswoman.
He also confirmed the Florida Ethics Commission is investigating.
Reporter Ryan Benk can be reached at rbenk@wjct.org, 904-358-6319 or on Twitter @RyanMichaelBenk.
