State budget plan cuts education, health care

Monday, January 12, 2009

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The House and Senate are scheduled to vote on the budget plan Wednesday.

TALLAHASSEE (Bay News 9) -- After a long weekend, lawmakers have a plan to fix the state's budget shortfall and it involves some big cuts to education.

Education will take a close to $500 million hit and health care will be cut about $180 million.

The state's land conservation is being suspended, and traffic fines and court fees are going up.

And even though lawmakers are bound to approve it, Gov. Charle Crist isn't thrilled with the solution.

"I'm a little disappointed in some things," Crist said. "I'm disappointed that we weren't able to go ahead and convince the members of the House and Senate to do the Seminole compact, which would have helped us to the tune of about $130 million more."

The governor also wanted to issue more bonds, basically a way of borrowing money. But House Republicans such as Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, wouldn't hear it.

"It's sort of like paying your mortgage with your credit card," Cannon said. "You can get through one month, but boy, when that bill comes the next month, it can be really difficult."

More Information

If the cuts weren't enough bad news, lawmakers still have to deal with next year's budget. The deficit there could be twice as big.

Although, Florida Taxwatch argues that lawmakers can save billions by re-negotiating state contracts and temporarily cutting spending for things like school textbooks.

"When the money was there, looking for ways to do it more efficiently wasn't sexy enough. But now that the money's not there, when you have to make cuts like this, there's only two options," said Robert Weissert with Florida Taxwatch. "You can either cut services to the governed, or you cut the government."

The House and Senate are scheduled to vote on the budget plan Wednesday.

Republican leaders say they're happy they held the line on raising taxes. But some admit that may be unavoidable when the legislature takes up next year's budget in a couple months.

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