Weekkly Roundup - Boning Up on the Budget

(Recap and analysis of the week in state government)

by Keith Laing
The News Service of Florida

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, March 12, 2010..........In the second week of the their 60 day legislative session, lawmakers left behind the pomp and circumstance and focused instead on a circumstance they would rather not be in: a $3 billion budget shortfall.

Following the lead of the House, Senate President Jeff Atwater unveiled budget allocations this week, and while the picture being painted was far from rosy, it was very similar to what was on the drawing board in the House. The Senate includes $8.9 billion in general revenue in K-12 education – just shy of the $9 billion set-aside by the House.

{sidebar id=1}But the Senate and House were not always singing from the same budget hymnals this week. The Senate budget includes $1 billion in federal aid into schools, topping the roughly $858 million proposed by House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala. Also, the House would spend more tax dollars on health and human services -- $6.8 billion against $6.4 billion in the Senate.

And while the House set aside $1 billion in a “rainy day” fund to weather the risk of a continued economic slide, Atwater’s budget allocations did not specify an amount. Both leaders have vowed the budget will include no tax increases or new fees.

With both chambers having set the parameters for the budget fights that will shape the 2010 session, lawmakers began the process of coloring within the lines of the spending plan. The Senate panel that writes the healthcare budget proposed cuts to children's mental health services, hearing aids and child abuse programs, hot meals for seniors and hundreds of state jobs, among other pleasant things.

Among the programs in the crosshairs is the $27 million Florida Healthy Families initiative, which provides parenting courses and counseling to reduce child abuse in an effort to keep more children with their parents. Another would slash $74 million in general revenue from adult substance abuse programs and eliminate 46 full-time investigator positions in the office that is supposed to protect vulnerable adults.

Constrained by Atwater’s allotments and forced at least temporarily to forgo at least $1.2 billion in federal funds that are still under discussion in Washington, committee chairman Durell Peaden, R-Crestview, was reduced to urging interest groups to lobby the Senate president and the governor to impress on them the need for additional money.

"We've cut this budget to the bone and you can't cut anymore," Peaden said.

Also boning up on the budget was a Senate education committee that said this week that it may dim the lights on the popular Bright Futures Scholarship program that pays for the education of more than half of Florida's college students.

“We simply don't have the money," said Senate Higher Ed Appropriations Chair Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach.

That’s a reality that forced lawmakers to think outside the box to balance the budget, a process begun in earnest this week. The chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, will have his committee consider legislation that could allow some companies to stamp their corporate logo on Florida license plates as a way to bring in some cash for the state.

And lawmakers also put their cards back on the table this week about a possible gaming deal with the Seminole Indian Tribe. The man the Senate is betting on to forge a deal said this week that if lawmakers can reach an agreement with the Seminole Tribe, it will likely happen in the next few weeks. Senate Regulated Industries Chair Dennis Jones said he and House Gaming Committee Chair Bill Galvano met this week and decided that they do not want the decision to come down to last minute negotiations as it did in the 2009 session.

And while lawmakers groped for the winning chip in negotiations with the tribe, Las Vegas gaming executives said the Legislature should roll the dice on them as an answer to Florida's economic woes, saying the industry could invest millions of dollars in Florida building resort-style casinos in South Florida.

But the presentation by Las Vegas Sands Government Relations and Community Development executives was met with skepticism by the House gaming chairman, who said Florida can't instantly go from a "family friendly, Mickey Mouse state" to a place like Las Vegas.

However, the Mickey Mouse budget facing lawmakers if they don’t find any other sources of revenue might mean that what happens is Vegas ends up in Florida instead of staying in Vegas.

And a congressman running for agriculture commissioner surmised that a deal on the standards, which are opposed by much of the state's business and farming communities, may be met soon.

U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, who joined the rest of the Florida congressional delegation in asking the federal Environmental Protection Agency to extend the period for public comment on the water standards, said that a middle ground could be determined by a third party who could be brought in to make the differing federal and state scientific analyses just water under the bridge.

Officials with the Department of Environmental Protection, which has sided with the opposition to the federal standards, said this week they were optimistic a deal could be reached. But a vocal opponent of DEP's analysis who has argued that threats about increased costs associated with the EPA proposal have been exaggerated, threw a bit of cold water on the idea.

"I think if the compromise is between what DEP wants and what EPA wants, that's not going to be what is acceptable to my organization," Linda Young of the Clean Water Network told the News Service. "I'm not even impressed with what EPA wants, much less some watered-down version DEP wants."

TEACHERS FIGHT BACK

In addition to weighing spending cuts, lawmakers are also weighing changes to education that would dramatically change Florida's school landscape, but the teachers union began this week its effort to outline the proposal in chalk.

{sidebar id=1}The state’s largest teacher's union is mounting a campaign against the legislation that would require that teachers get paid based on student performance, rather than on the educators' years of service. Labor leaders said this week the bill, which would penalize schools that do not comply with the new system by taking away a percentage of their state funds, could be the "ruin" of Florida schools.

"It lashes out at teachers who make Florida the model for the nation," said Florida Education Association President Andy Ford.

Lawmakers might have to resolve the issues that arose this week without the input of one of the Capitol’s most visible figures during the legislative session. Justice 2 Jesus lobbyist Brian Pitts was jailed this week in Pinellas County. Pitts is beginning a five month sentence for practicing law without a license. He was ordered to jail for repeatedly violating a 2003 order by the Florida Supreme Court, which sentenced him last month.

STORY OF THE WEEK:  Lawmakers continued this week trying to craft a budget that will have to be balanced despite another $3 billion shortfall.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:  “We're going to have to approve them. We certainly don't want the Pussycat Lounge on somebody's tag,” Sen Mike Fasano on the possibility that lawmakers will allow corporations to sponsor state license plates, revealing the lengths to which they may have to go to balance the budget.

This information originally published on March 13, 2010.

Tell them you saw it on Wakulla.com!

Click here to discuss this topic in our Online Discussion Forums.

Per Wakulla.com policy, all reader comments (submitted below) must include a valid first and last name.

Click here to have the Wakulla.com Weekly E-Newsletter delivered directly to your inbox!

Written by :

mkwestmark

 

Comments (0)

You must be logged in to post a comment.