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Lawmakers Look To Fee Increases To Cover Deficit

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By MIKE SALINERO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 26, 2009

TALLAHASSEE - In their zeal not to raise taxes, Florida lawmakers continue to look at selected fee increases as a way to cover the state's looming $5.7 billion budget deficit.

The latest move in that direction came today from a state Senate committee that is recommending that fees for driver's licenses, registrations and records be raised by several dollars each. The increases mirror fee hikes proposed by Gov. Charlie Crist.

Some of the fees proposed by Crist included:

• First time driver's license fees from $27 to $30;

•To retake the drivers' skills test from $10 to $20;

•Processing fee for personalized or specialty license plate from $2 to $5;

•To retake a knowledge test from $5 to $10.

The fees hikes would generate $385 million, according to Sen. Mike Fasano, a New Port Richey Republican who chairs the Senate Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee. Of that amount, $113 million would stay in the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the rest would go toward the state general fund for deficit reduction.

Fasano said the fee increases, plus raids on state trust funds, allowed the committee to restore or reduce steep cuts previously planned for a number of state programs, including child care programs for parents who qualify.

Fasano also boasted the committee would not take a single state trooper off Florida highways.

Altogether, the committee cut $130 million from programs ranging from workforce training to economic development. State grants to libraries were reduced by $4.2 million, a cut that still left $21 million in funding, Fasano said.

The biggest hit in the recommended budget was reserved for Visit Florida, the state's chief tourist promoter. Last year, the agency received $35 million from the state. But Fasano wants to strip all of Visit Florida's general revenue funding, leaving the agency to subsist on $8 million in trust fund money.

Fasano laughed when asked if the cut was punishment for fat bonuses paid to Visit Florida's executives and the agency's use of an out-of-state vendor to handle calls about vacations in the Sunshine State.

"I understand Visit Florida got the message loud and clear," Fasano said, referring to the anger directed at the agency's executives from lawmakers in both houses.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303.

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