Florida lawmakers balance budget with cuts, gaming money

They boosted funds for higher education, but hiked tuition to do it. They staved off a pay cut to state employees, but made their health care more expensive.

The $70.4 billion budget that House and Senate lawmakers approved on Friday represents a complicated mix of priorities and compromises to keep core programs and services going for another year.

"This reflects the tough choices that fewer dollars necessitates," Senate budget chairman JD Alexander said. "Do we wish we could have spent more money on different programs we all believe in? Absolutely. Does it maintain critical government services....I believe it does."

With costs outpacing state revenues by more than $3 billion, the budget also relies on $2.3 billion in federal stimulus money approved last year, and another $270 million in assistance that state leaders hope Congress will provide soon.

A new gaming compact with the Seminoles injected $433 million into the spending plan, a new tax amnesty program added an expected $81.4 million, and sweeps of state trust funds patched other budget holes.

"You said that you did not want to raise taxes and fees, and we did not," House budget chairman David Rivera said.

That's a change from last year when, faced with a potential deficit, the state hiked the cigarette tax and boosted a host of vehicle-related and other government fees.

This year, lawmakers focused on cuts -- among them:

• reimbursement rates to nursing homes and hospitals, cut 7 percent

• incentives for state employees to adopt foster children -- eliminated

• Healthy Start coalitions, serving at-risk pregnant women and infants, cut $2.6 million

• Healthy Families, preventing child abuse and neglect, cut by $10 million, nearly one-third

• contributions to county health departments, cut $10.5 million

• 185 juvenile detention beds, cut $7 million

• services for people with developmental disabilities, cut $5.6 million and spending capped

"We kind of just looked at two legs of the stool," said Sen. Nan Rich, D-Westin, criticizing heavy cuts to health and human services. "We looked at budget reductions, which we've been doing for the last three years, and we looked at stimulus money. But we did not look at other resources, closing [tax] loopholes, trying to bring equity to our tax structure."

Rich and other lawmakers fought hard throughout budget negotiations to stave off other cuts -- among them, a $14-millon cut to local mental health programs and total elimination of Healthy Families.

While the House had initially proposed a slight decrease in per-student funding for K-12 public schools, the chambers gradually nudged up the amount during conference negotiations, which ultimately yielded $6,843.41 per student -- a $1.22 increase over funding that schools are receiving now.

It's a drop, however, from the $6,873 that lawmakers budgeted one year ago. Schools wound up receiving less per student this year due partly to enrollment increases, and partly due to Gov. Charlie Crist's veto of a trust fund sweep that fed the schools budget.

Bay-area Republicans also battled with Senate budget chief JD Alexander over a proposed $69 million withdrawal from the coffers of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority.

Alexander, R-Lake Wales, targeted the authority for a variety of reasons -- outstanding loans, a recent court settlement -- but said he mainly did it to protest the $160-million transportation trust fund raid on which House leaders were insisting. Senate leaders complained that would delay projects statewide.

Ultimately, Alexander agreed to whittle down the $69-million grab from the expressway authority to $19 million.

Throughout the week, Alexander and Sen. Rudy Garcia, R-Hialeah said they were working on a way to let unemployed Floridians take advantage of any extension of unemployment compensation that Congress might approve after the end of the state's legislative session. As the law exists now, unemployed Floridians won't be able to take advantage of a future extension.

The legislation never surfaced, however. Late Thursday, Alexander said it would be added to a bill slated for final passage the following day, but no such amendment materialized.

After the close of session, House Majority Leader Adam Hasner said lawmakers had decided against it, fearing that the federal government might extend the benefits but stop paying fully for them.

"By leaving the open-ended date, we could have been on the hook for a 50/50 split," said Hasner, R-Delray Beach.

Alexander, Garcia and other senators raised the prospect of a special session, however, to address the issue if Congress grants the extension. A special session is already the topic of speculation around the Capitol, given rumors that Crist - a newly no-party affiliated candidate for Senate - may object to cuts in the budget and veto it.