State Senate, House pass deep budget cuts

TALLAHASSEE — A state constitutional requirement to balance the budget and a $4 billion revenue shortfall left legislators with two options – cut spending or raise taxes. They chose to cut spending; a lot.

After passage Thursday, the House version of the budget came in at $66.5 billion and the Senate version at $69.8 billion. The difference has been attributed to bookkeeping differences and will be ironed out when the two houses begin joint meetings on Monday. The details of the bills are different, but no state agency was spared from cuts in either bill. The funding reductions will have profound implications for health care, education and public safety, among others.

“This was my fifth budget debate and it was much more realistic and sullen than any I’ve been in before,” Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said. “There was less demagoguery from liberals and there was no joy from conservatives as these cuts were made.”

The budget was passed early in the day by the Senate by a vote of 33-6. The process was a bit longer in the House, which did not take its final budget vote until about 7 p.m. and passed the bill 78-39.

“I think there was thoughtful debate on both sides of the aisle,” Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, said. “… I think we acted in a fiscally responsible manner and fulfilled our constitutional responsibility and passed a balanced budget and we did it without raising taxes.”

The $4 billion shortfall is not a year-over-year difference from last year’s $70.4 billion budget, but a reflection of less tax revenue than anticipated. Gaetz said the diversion from predictions forced Florida’s lawmakers to “tweeze” through the budget. Legislators were able to find wasteful spending that should have been cut long ago, but they also were forced to carve away at critical programs.

A Senate bill co-sponsored by Gaetz would eliminate $1 billion from the state Medicaid program. The public healthcare plan for low-income Floridians represents one-third of the state’s budget and eradicating the budget deficit would have been impossible without exerting some control over the federal program funded on the state level, he said. A nonpoverty health subsidy, entitled the Medically Needy program, was also dramatically slashed, bringing funding cuts of $13.6 million to Bay County alone.

The Senate also passed a tiered approach to public employee contributions to their previously state-funded pensions. Public employees earning $25,000 or less would pay in 2 percent, those earning $25,001 to $50,000 would pay 4 percent and those earning more than $50,000 would pay in 6 percent.

Gaetz added an amendment calling for elected officials to pay in 1 percent more than their employees. If the official falls in the 4 percent bracket, they would pay 5 percent, he said.

“Bosses should lead from the front,” Gaetz said.

Gov. Rick Scott proposed a 5 percent across the board pay in, which equates to a pay cut for all state employees. The House passed a 3 percent universal cut.

Public schools and colleges will also sustain dramatic cuts.

The House version of the budget reduces per-student-funding for K-12 education by 6.8 percent or about $40 per student. Bay County School officials have projected the district will lose about $12 million to $13 million, a hardship compounded by the possibility of needing to hire more teachers to comply with Florida’s Class Size Amendment. Superintendent Bill Husfelt and the school board have discussed possibly fatal cuts to arts and athletics to cope with the loss of funding.

The majority of the money available was put into the per-pupil-funding which siphons into the district’s general fund in order to give the districts maximum flexibility to protect classroom studies.

“The core mission of education is where we put the most money,” Coley said.

Both versions of the budget also called for tuition hikes at community colleges and state universities. The House version of the budget increased tuition by 5 percent and the Senate raised it by 8 percent. Individual schools, however, which benefitted greatly from federal stimulus money the last two years, have the option to raise tuition up to 15 percent.

Taxes remained static in the budgets of both houses. Though a decrease in services resulting from hemorrhaging funding will touch the lives of Florida residents, reaching into their pockets and further damaging their bottom line would be worse, Gaetz said.

“The problem with raising taxes is that it’s the wrong thing to do in a recession,” he said. “No matter how you feel about taxes philosophically, it’s the wrong thing for the economy in a recession.”

As she has talked with her constituents, Coley said she has been told repeatedly raising taxes should not be an option for legislators.

“If you look around the state and even the country families are having to cut back,” she said. “They want us to do the same. They want us to live within our means.”

Though there are tax cuts he would like to make, including reducing drivers’ license and vehicle registration fees, any cut in taxes would have to be balanced with spending cuts somewhere else, Gaetz said.

“We have probably reached the pain threshold,” he said.

The cuts will be painful, but hopefully many of the most devastating will be temporary, Gaetz said. This year’s budget includes heavy investment in infrastructure, port funding and job creation, which the senator said he hopes will spur the economy to recovery and will allow some programs to be restored in coming years. Ideally, Florida will emerge from the budget crisis stronger and more efficient than before, he said.