Some lawmakers say the state is wasting money on a losing proposition. Lanier Cansler, the Department of Health and Human Services secretary who personally approved the purchase, said he is satisfied that the department handled the case right. Nonetheless, he has asked the department’s internal auditor for a review to make certain its procedures make sense.

Rep. Robert Grady, a Jacksonville Republican, happened across the crab pot buy as a member of a state board that approves some contracts. The notice last month about an “emergency” crab-pot purchase startled him.

“It’s like you hit me with a stick,” he said.

Even though the pots are bought with federal money, Grady said taxpayers shouldn’t be underwriting a shaky business venture while he’s taking questions from constituents about teachers losing their jobs and elderly people losing home care.

“I think this is crazy,” he said.

Sen. Phil Berger, the chamber’s minority leader, said that the crab pot purchase represents “a misplacing of priorities on the part of state bureaucrats.”

“I don’t think state bureaucrats should be given a pass on spending because it comes out of the federal funds we got,” said Berger, an Eden Republican. “Waste is waste.”

The state, citing federal privacy laws, did not identify the crab fisherman, provide his business plan, or disclose his disability.

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