By Lynn Hatter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-961930.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – The Florida Senate has started a two day process of putting the final touches on its budget proposal. Lynn Hatter reports members of the chamber are proposing a budget that's three-billion more than their house counterparts.
At the beginning of session, legislative leaders made a decision to not increase taxes, which mean they've taken out the scissors and made cuts. Senate President Mike Haridopolos says he knows the choices made are going to hurt people, but he also says there's no other option. He calls it the most challenging budget in Florida's history.
"Each of you have recognized that we face a three-billion, eight hundred million dollar shortfall. And the alternative would either be a tax increase or spending less. And this Senate has chosen to spend less. And so the difficult decision now is in your hands."
That decision is determining where, and how to cut. The Senate's proposal is 69.8-billion dollars, about one and a half billion less than last year. Senate Budget Chief J.D Alexander, who is a citrus grower, compared the current situation to pruning trees.
"With Valencia oranges, there are oranges that are on the tree at the same time we have to prune the tree. And like a lot of decisions we have today we have to look at it very thoughtfully and very carefully and decide how to prune that tree because it will crowd itself out and will not grow. But in the process you end up sacrificing some fruit that you'd like to get paid on."
Alexander says the pruning has to start with where the money is. And when it comes to the state's budget, most of the money is in three areas: Education, Health and Human Services and state employees. One by one, the Senate's committee chairs rose to present spending proposals on the different agencies and areas that make up Florida's budget, starting with Education which takes up about a third of state revenue. K through Education Committee chairman David Simmons said education is an investment as he read off the numbers.
"This is a decrease of 1.63 -billion dollars, or seven -percent over last year' s budget. Going to the FEFP, the total funds are reduced by 1.01-billion dollars, or 5.63-percent, from 17.9 billion to 16.96 billion dollars the funds per FTE are reduced by 423-dollars or 6.21-percent."
Simmons is counting on about 550-million in federal education jobs money that districts were told to hold on to. He's also counting on another 670 million in pension savings once teacher's start paying into their retirement. Those two numbers fill most the billion-plus dollar gap. And he says once that's added back into the budget, the cut is closer to about 400-million, which helps schools almost break even.
In the area of Health and Human Services, the Senate's Committee Chairman Joe Negron says nursing homes are taking a five-percent hit in reimbursement rates, and hospitals are taking a 10-percent reduction. Negron says his priorities were persons with disabilities and children. And that's what his budget reflects.
"When it comes to mental health and substance abuse, we've made no reductions in programs that benefit children. So we continued funding for drug treatment and mental health for children. Then you move in to adults. What we do not fund and what we made dramatic reductions to was substance abuse and mental health treatments for adults."
Both the House and Senate are looking at additional savings by revamping the state's Medicaid program and shifting three-million Floridians into managed care. They say it will stop the 20-billion dollar program from ballooning into a 22-billion dollar program next year. But the chambers have differing proposals which have to be resolved.
Then there are state's employees, who say they lawmakers are using them to balance the budget. Senator Alan Hays, who chairs the Government Operations budget, says his committee took the approach of defining what the state's core functions should be.
"We reduced our budget by 135-million dollars. And 1,172 positions. 27-percent of those positions, 317 to be exact are vacant, and 855 are filled."
In addition to job losses, employees who get to keep theirs will be paying into their pensions for the first time. How much they'll have to pay is still being worked out. Additional cost-savings are coming from the mergers of several state agencies, including the Agency for Workforce Innovation, Trade and Economic Development, and Department of Community Affairs into a single entity called Jobs Florida. A final vote on the senate's proposal is set for Thursday.