From everything we've seen thus far the 2009 budget is going to be one big mess. As I pointed out in Wednesday's post, Crist, Atwater, and Sansom are to blame for this years woes. However, there is one person which did a lot to weaken Florida's government and sow the seeds for the economic downturn which has the entire state scrambling: Jeb Bush.

Jeb was governor during a time of budgetary surpluses, and like his brother, demonstrated a striking lack of fiscal responsibility. Instead of wisely investing in public education, laying the foundation for universal health care, or putting a down payment on a green economic future, Jeb sold off the surpluses he received to tax cuts which mostly benefited wealthier Floridians at the expense of the middle class and the poor.

At the same time, Jeb loaded up state government with Bush family lackeys who proceeded to weaken public institutions from within. Perhaps the most notorious of these situations was the Office of Financial Regulation, whose job it is to protect Floridians from fraud. OFR allowed former felons, including those previously convicted of racketeering and fraud, to attain mortgage licenses:

During an eight-month investigation, The Miami Herald analyzed computer records for more than 222,844 Florida mortgage professionals, examined thousands of records from the Office of Financial Regulation, reviewed hundreds of court files and interviewed dozens of regulators, brokers and victims.

The newspaper found:

• From 2000 to 2007, regulators allowed at least 10,529 people with criminal records to work in the mortgage profession. Of those, 4,065 cleared background checks after committing crimes that state law specifically requires regulators to screen, including fraud, bank robbery, racketeering and extortion.

• More than half the people who wrote mortgages in Florida during that period were not subject to any criminal background check. Despite repeated pleas from industry leaders to screen them, Florida regulators have refused.

• Confronted with a growing epidemic of mortgage fraud -- Florida now has the highest rate in the nation -- the number of license revocations declined over the last five years, leaving borrowers at the mercy of predatory brokers.

• During the peak of the housing boom, the Office of Financial Regulation ignored a state law enacted in 2006 that compelled it to perform nationwide criminal background checks on applicants. That failure allowed people convicted in other states -- and in federal court -- to peddle loans in Florida without any scrutiny.

• Regulators allowed at least 20 brokers to keep their licenses even after committing the one crime that seemed sure to get them banned from the industry: mortgage fraud.

We're paying the price now. However, if Jeb runs for US Senate, Florida voters may have the last laugh.