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House, Senate Cut Spending
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Published: April 4, 2008
TALLAHASSEE - Democratic lawmakers argued in vain on Thursday against slashing medical care for poor seniors, reading coaches for schoolchildren, hospital care for transplant patients and other programs affecting Florida's youngest, sickest and poorest residents.
With conflicting lists of such sensitive cuts heading for votes in the full House and Senate next week, lawmakers are preparing for what promise to be grueling conference negotiations between the chambers later this month.
Thursday, House and Senate budget panels approved their chambers' respective plans for shrinking education, health care, public safety and other parts of the 2008-09 state budget by roughly $5 billion in response to plummeting state revenue.
'Parade Of Horrors'
"It's a parade of horrors," said Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller, D-Hallandale Beach, at a news conference on Thursday. "People will not only needlessly suffer, they will die."
Among the proposed cuts:
•Eliminating the Meds-AD program that provides Medicaid coverage for seniors living at 88 percent of the federal poverty line (Senate cut: $356 million savings)
•Eliminating hospice care for dying Medicaid patients (House cut: $52 million)
•Shrinking Healthy Start and Healthy Families prevention and support programs (House cut: $8.8 million; Senate cut: $6.8 million)
•Reducing per-student funding for K-12 schools (House cut: $86 a student; Senate: $116 a student)
•Cutting spending on reading coaches (House cut: $4.6 million; Senate: $3.2 million)
The two chambers also disagree on how to minimize the impact of cuts.
To date, neither chamber has shown interest in proposals from Democrats this session to raise the cigarette tax, end sales tax exemptions or close corporate tax loopholes. The $65.9 billion Senate budget incorporates more fee increases, and the $65 billion House plan redirects $659 million from 25 state trust funds that support needs such as transportation and affordable housing.
Property Taxes
Property taxes are a point of contention. House leaders are freezing millage rates for the schools' portion of property taxes to raise the same amount of revenue received in the current year, $7.9 billion, but the Senate is keeping millage rates where they are to reap additional revenue gained from new growth and increases in property values. The Senate would also boost school operating budgets with about $280 million in local tax money that would normally pay for construction.
Rep. Joe Pickens, R-Palatka, chairman of the Schools and Learning Council, said the House is fulfilling a pledge against raising property taxes, which House leaders made after voters OK'd the Amendment 1 tax cut passed in January. School districts will have to look at a range of cost-cutting measures next year. "Some are going to raise the thermostat a couple of degrees when it gets warmer," Pickens said.
In the Tampa Bay area, schools would fare better under the House budget than in the Senate budget.
The House plan would give the Hillsborough schools a slight bump in funds, $3 million, but the Senate calls for an $8.2 million cut. Pasco County would receive a $4.4 million increase in the House budget plan, versus $3.2 million more in the Senate version. Either plan would cost Pinellas schools: $22.5 million lost in the House, $26 million in the Senate.
Rep. Curtis Richardson, D-Tallahassee, complained about cutting bonuses for teachers who attain national board certification.
"I think it does have a direct impact on performance in the classroom," he said, adding that teacher pay in Florida lags behind other states.
Rep. Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, D-Miami, argued against shrinking the state's reading program. "If you can't read, you're going to be unhealthy and uneducated," she said.
She said Gov. Charlie Crist had called for a $1 billion increase in K-12 spending.
Asked about large discrepancies between Crist's budget plan and the Legislature's, Senate budget chief Lisa Carlton said it's an unfair comparison. "His budget was put together before we had any of these revenue estimates," said Carlton, R-Osprey. "He had $2 billion more when he put his budget together."
The House-Senate plan to raise college tuition by 6 percent likewise defies the governor's general reluctance to raise student costs. The House also wants to raid a trust fund that supports building improvements at Florida's universities.
Health Care
Again and again on Thursday, House Democrats returned to the $1.14 billion in cuts to the health care budget, from 10 percent rate reductions for nursing homes to shuttering the state's tuberculosis hospital.
House Healthcare Council Chairman Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, noted a few bright spots such as the first increases in Medicaid reimbursement rates that doctors and dentists have received in three decades.
To Democrats objecting to cuts, he said, "To restore them, we have to cut other programs elsewhere. We have to live within our allocation."
Reporters Nicola White and Adam Emerson contributed to this report. Reporter Catherine Dolinski can be reached at cdolinski@tampatrib.com or (850) 222-8382.
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Reader Comments
Posted by ( Reality ) on April 4, 2008 at 10:35 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
So explain to me again why our elected polithiefians in Tallyho are giving away THREE-QUARTERS OF A BILLION DOLLARS in taxpayer funds to CSX for NO GOOD REASON?
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