Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed $371 million from the state budget Friday and signed a spending plan that strips away key proposals backed by major Republican lawmakers.

Crist, now running for U.S. Senate as an independent, waited until the afternoon of his last day to sign the budget. And what he signed was a slimmed-down, slightly-more-than $70 billion spending plan rid of a much-debated raid on transportation funds, a reduction in Medicaid funds to nursing homes and many local and higher education projects.

Business groups say the Legislature's latest raid on the state Transportation Trust Fund will put a screeching halt to new road projects and throw 11,000 workers off the job.

To help balance the budget, lawmakers pulled $160 million from the Florida Department of Transportation's trust fund. But contractors say that's just a down payment on a bigger problem down the road.

"That equals $450 million in projects," said Bill Burleson of the Florida Transportation Builders Association. "There's a lot at stake here."