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Governor's Education Proposal Exercise In Delusional Budgeting

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 23, 2008

Gov. Charlie Crist unveiled an ambitious education budget proposal last week to help win support for the property tax amendment that is on the Jan. 29 ballot.

But this deceptive spending plan should make Floridians even more skeptical that Tallahassee can pump up education spending while approving tax cuts and struggling with tight economic times.

Though state tax revenues are down and Crist is pushing an increase in the homestead exemption that may lower property taxes, the governor says he can increase education spending by more than $1 billion.

But Crist is attempting a sleight of hand - more than one-third of his proposed education budget comes from shifting even more of the education tax burden to the counties.

Voters should be wise to this trick. Tallahassee in recent years has bragged about putting more money into education, but it did so by increasing property taxes - the very taxes Crist and lawmakers say are so burdensome.

The state manages the tax shift through the Required Local Effort - school property taxes that are imposed by the Legislature. Of course, the state doesn't get blamed for the taxes, local governments do.

Under Crist's plan, the counties' tax burden would increase by $338 million to nearly $9.4 billion. This past year, those same lawmakers who chastised local officials for not cutting property taxes increased the Required Local Effort by $545 million. In other words, Tallahassee actually cuts its share of education spending while passing the burden to the counties.

How's that for fiscal discipline?

Crist's budgetary illusions don't stop there. He said more money can be generated for education through yet unidentified cuts in other parts of the budget, not revealing what services would be eliminated, something voters might want to know.

And the governor would shift more than $900 million from new school construction to salaries, utilities and other operating costs - even though there's a constitutional class-size amendment requiring the state to keep funding construction and another limiting the shifting of money for one-time expenses to recurring costs like salaries.

Crist also would cut the Florida Resident Access Grant for incoming freshmen - the $3,000 the state pays for each student who wants to attend a private university - to raise another $47.7 million. The grant is a great bargain for Florida taxpayers since they don't have to provide space on public university campuses or faculty to teach these students.

With state universities reacting to budget cuts with layoffs and tightening admissions standards and community colleges struggling under the crushing weight of their enrollments, the FRAG cut raises the question of where are these students supposed to go if they lose their tuition subsidy?

This illusionary plan should frighten anyone who understands that an educated workforce is the key to remaining competitive in the global economy.

Despite Crist's assurances, a first-rate education system won't be achieved with financial hocus-pocus.

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