Gov. Rick Scott signed the budget Thursday in The Villages, simultaneously announcing $615 million in line item veto budget cuts.

The final budget now comes in at $69.1 billion. Scott said the vetoes would have gone to "special interests" and now the majority of the money will go into pre-K through 12 education.

"There were 3,036 line items in that budget. I know that because I looked at every single one of them," Scott said.

Scott said the hardest decision he made was to cut $150 million from road and bridge construction in order to put the money into education.

"The Legislature forced me to decide whether to spend that money on roads and bridges or to spend those same dollars on quality teachers and textbooks for kids. To me, it wasn't much of a choice," Scott said.


Click here to see Governor Scott’s veto message.

Click here to see the complete list of vetoes.

For more information on the 2011-12 budget, visit www.FLGov.com/budget/.

Full story to follow.