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Belt-Tightening Will Hurt But Should Benefit Florida

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 1, 2007

The Legislature convenes Wednesday for a third session this year, this time to cut some $1.5 billion from the state's $72 billion budget. It will be painful, but it can be done.

It's a new and serious moment for the Republican-dominated body. State government has rolled in the riches the last few years. But with the anemic housing market and an economic slowdown reducing revenue from the sales tax and documentary stamp fees, lawmakers now must consider major cuts.

Naturally, those who have benefited from the state's largesse are defending their turf. Agency heads, university presidents, social-service advocates and public school officials all have ideas about how and where to cut.
State lawmakers obviously don't relish making decisions that will upset some constituents.

Nevertheless, as former Speaker Alan Bense reminded us last week, in a state where the budget has grown by a third in six years, lawmakers can find fat to trim.

Following the regular session that ended in May, Gov. Charlie Crist cut $459 million in lawmakers' projects from the budget, and when it became obvious state revenues would not meet expectations, he ordered state agencies to reduce spending by 4 percent and to curtail new programs. And they obliged.

Jim McDonough, who heads the Department of Corrections, proposed reducing prison sentences, not a bad idea for low-risk prisoners who could instead be placed in work release or some other community-control program. The move could save the state $220 million. Another idea is to release prisoners nearing the end of their sentence three months early. But are lawmakers who won election being tough on crime willing to consider it?

Education, human services, health and transportation capture the lion's share of the state budget - 77 percent - and it's in those departments that we can expect to see the most cuts. Not all are bad.

In August the state Department of Law Enforcement said it could cut $376,000 spent to train police officers in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, a program studies have shown doesn't work. And the Department of Children and Families, which was asked to reduce its budget by $213 million, could cut nearly $2 million spent annually to lease privately owned office space now sitting empty.

In Tampa, the Johnnie B. Byrd Sr. Alzheimer's Center and Research Institute at the University of South Florida stands to lose $10 million, cutting by more than half its annual funding. We urge lawmakers to withhold the devastating cut, which would undermine what the state has already invested in the important research institute. But to ensure more efficiency and accountability, the Legislature should pursue placing the center under the auspices of USF.

Other cuts should be less difficult. Lawmakers should put off spending money on new medical schools at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and Florida International University in Miami. And they should once again raise university tuition by 5 percent, but this time, Crist, who vetoed the increase earlier this year, should let it stand.

The real concern is not that cuts can be made this session, but that this may be only the beginning. With some economists forecasting a continued sluggish economy, more cuts may be required next year.

But belt-tightening is a healthy exercise, especially in a state whose budget has ballooned in recent years. The cuts may cause some pain in the short term, but in the aftermath, a leaner state will be a more productive state.

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