By James Call
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-894080.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – The Florida House spent four hours Thursday debating a $67-billion state budget proposal. House leaders decided not to follow the Senate's lead and did not include additional money from Congress and a Seminole gambling compact. That decision left House Democrats fuming.
Thursday morning, Speaker Larry Cretul met with the House Leadership to plan the day's schedule. Rules Chairman Representative Bill Galvano explained the rules of engagement for the budget debate.
"130 minutes per side, broken into ten minute segments. Each ten minute segment will be occupied by either a pro or a con. So, there will be ten minutes pro, ten minutes con."
House Democrats are disappointed in the spending proposal and used their allotted time to lay the spending plan spread-eagle before the public. The bottom line of the House proposal is $2-billion less than the Senate's. Democrat Ron Saunders said that, although he understands the economy is struggling and that lawmakers have no appetite to raise taxes to close an expected revenue shortfall, the House could have built a better budget.
"Nobody expected it to be a pretty budget. But there are some bad things in the budget. Raiding the trust fund kills jobs; they are also taking away retirement benefits from retired teachers, firefighters, policemen. They also are eliminating healthy start coalitions, so they did some bad things they didn't have to do."
The Senate avoided many of the cuts the House proposed by using money from a Seminole gambling compact the Legislature has yet to approve and federal money Congress is expected to send to the states after Easter. Although Florida's economy is showing signs of increased activity, tax collections are expected to fall short for the fourth year in a row. House Majority Leader Adam Hasner said the House spending plan balances the state's needs with the money the state has on hand.
"This year, we have another $3-billion budget deficit, and just like Florida's families and businesses, we have tough decisions to make, and we are going to prioritize, and we are going to balance the budget responsibly. And we're going to do it within existing revenues and without raising taxes. And I think that's what the people expect us to do here in Tallahassee."
That is an assumption that Saunders and the House Democrats want to put to a test. Given the microphone, the Democrats used a variety of adjectives to describe the spending proposal as terrible. Saunders conceded that outnumbered 75 to 44, Democrats knew they would be unable to stop cuts the House budget proposed to education, social services, and other programs. However, he said they did have a plan.
"Shame. Our audience is not just the voter, it is the Senate... Some Democrats in the Senate voted for the Senate bill because some of these bad things are not in the Senate side. And hopefully the Senate will listen and in conference they will eliminate the trust fund raid, they will eliminate the cutting of the healthy start coalitions, and they will eliminate the raid on retirement benefits. So hopefully our arguments today will lead to a better budget in the end."
The Legislature is moving through the session this year at a quicker pace than usual. The schedule will allow lawmakers to spend April blending the House and Senate proposals into a state budget. It provides time for the Legislature and Seminoles to continue negotiations, the federal government to appropriate additional Medicaid money, and the public to inspect the budget proposal.
Representative Hasner said, "We're only halfway through. There is still plenty of time to work out all of these issues. But the most important thing is that we pass a responsibly balanced budget at the end of session, one which sends the message that Florida is poised for economic recovery."
The House and Senate will begin working to close the $2-billion difference in their plans next week. The Senate is scheduled to reconvene Tuesday.