By James Call
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-959414.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – Budget subcommittees in the Florida Senate are finalizing their sections of the state budget for next year. Lawmakers are reducing every sector of state spending to close a 3.8 billion dollar short fall. James Call reports Thursday 30 people lined up to tell Senators what a billion dollars cut in social programs will mean to their lives.
Budget subcommittees in the Florida Senate are finalizing their sections of the state budget for next year. Lawmakers are reducing every sector of state spending to close a 3 point 8 billion dollar short fall. James Call reports Thursday 30 people lined up to tell Senators what a billion dollars cut in social programs will mean to their lives.
More than 100 people had filed into the Committee meeting when Health and Human Services Chairman Senator Joe Negron called the meeting to order. Negron's job is to find a billion dollars worth of savings in the Health and Human Services budget. That's Medicaid money and funding for programs delivered by state agencies like Veterans, Elders Affairs, Children and Families.
Like the Medically Needed program. It helps people not poor enough for Medicaid but afflicted with a catastrophic disease. It stands to lose about 235 million dollars. Sharon Stano's late son received services from the Medically Needy program and asked Senators to take a another look at cutting its budget.
"This system is not broken because of people with disabilities. It is broken because we have broken it. And we need to fix it and not on the backs of people with disabilities. Not on their backs. So think about it in terms if we were a moral community which we aren't we're a community of greed in the United States. If we were a moral community and if we were willing to do whatever it took to save the lives of our most vulnerable population how would we do it?"
The Senate has allocated $28 billion for Health. Senators want to keep funding programs like KidCare and Healthy Start medical insurance programs, but acknowledged that there will be deep cuts that will affect the quality of life for vulnerable residents.
Senator Steve Olrich observed that although the programs will get fewer dollars they are not being eliminated. He said that lawmakers are trying to balance a budget in the face of the worst recession since the Great Depression and that credit should be given for saving not eliminating programs.
"And I heard today that we should base this budget like money is no object. And that America is based on greed. But I see here from this budget that we are going to spend some 92- billion dollars of tax payers money, people that work hard out there on various programs that help the less fortunate and I think that is a great thing. I would take extreme exception to that somehow that citizens out there are are greedy. They through us uh some 92 billion dollars appropriate to spend on these programs so my hats off to them."
"When you add that to your other reductions,there's another five percent rate cut."
Dianne Flenard traveled from Monroe County to try to persuade lawmakers to put another 100 thousand dollars into a fund to assist developmentally disabled citizens.
"Now we're close to a 20-some-percentage rate cut for residential. There is also a reduction from residential to individual rates that takes it from 18 to 25 percent reduction and you add on another five-percent with that now we're back to 23 to 30 percent reduction for all the services in Monroe County."
Flenard is executive director of the Monroe Association for Retarded Citizens. She's lobbying for a geographical payment differential which compensates for a region's cost of living expense. Flenard explained the additional money is needed because, Monroe County is the most expensive county in the state, and many of her clients were moved to Monroe more than 30 years ago when Florida closed the state hospitals where they lived. Her comments led to an exchange with Senator Joe Negron.
"That's a minus, a miniscule drop in the bucket with this umm issue..."
Negron: "Hold on just a second. Actually it is more than a drop in the bucket. Let me talk about how this work. Let me draw member's attention to line 58 in the budget by reducing the geographical differential for southeast Florida and the Keys it saves 1.278-million dollars. Now that may not be a good idea maybe someone. We have 28 billion dollars here and the committee may decide that j--it's more important to fund the differential for south Florida and the Keys than another item. That is a judgment call and a judgment and we appreciate your input on the issue but none of this is fixed in stone. This is a proposal."
The Senate has given Negron 28 billion dollars to meet the health needs of Florida's 19 million residents. He said that means he has to prioritize. He expects to finalize his plan over the weekend. Then he has to get it through the Senate and successfully negotiate with the House. Like the Senate the House plans deep cuts.