Post by FIUBlue82 on Aug 28, 2007 13:13:08 GMT -5
www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/217095.html
TALLAHASSEE
More state budget cuts loom
State budget woes prompt legislators to consider tuition increases and teacher pay cuts to close an ever-growing spending gap.
By MARY ELLEN KLAS AND GARY FINEOUT
meklas@MiamiHerald.com
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's budget woes got worse Monday as state economists warned that revenues will fall short by $2.5 billion next year unless lawmakers severely cut spending on the state's $71 billion budget.
Among the likely inevitable options to rebalance the budget: increasing university tuition, postponing merit pay for teachers and cutting school budgets, legislative leaders said.
Rep. Ray Sansom and Sen. Lisa Carlton, who head the House and Senate budget committees, said they are prepared to restore the 5 percent university tuition hikes that lawmakers approved in the spring, but Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed. They said they could impose the tuition increases at the Legislature's special session in September and have them take effect in time for the spring semester.
''I wouldn't be surprised if we go back to a tuition increase,'' said Sansom, a Destin Republican. Said Carlton, a Sarasota Republican: ``Perhaps in the spring semester.''
The budget chairmen made their comments after a presentation by the Legislature's chief economist, Amy Baker, who predicted that in addition to the $1.1 billion shortfall that lawmakers face this year, the deficit will climb to $2.5 billion by the 2008-09 budget year.
The budget gap forecast is the worst the state has faced since the 2001 terrorist attacks, when fewer tourists visited Florida and state tax revenues plummeted. This time the budget culprit is the state's declining housing market, which has reduced tax receipts and is expected to remain stagnant for some time.
The deficit amounts to 8 percent of the state's general revenue budget -- mostly from sales tax collections -- in the 2008-09 budget year, Baker told the Legislative Budget Commission as legislators began work on the three-year economic forecast now required by the state Constitution.
''It's clear we're going to need some fiscal strategies in place,'' she said. ``The reserves are inadequate. Other actions are going to be needed to keep the budget in balance.''
Translation: Expect more budget cuts beyond the $1.1 billion that legislators will make in the Sept. 18 special session.
MORE CUTS
Carlton said that in addition to that, legislators plan to reduce another $870 million when they meet in regular session in March. Sansom said the number is between $700 million and $800 million.
While both budget leaders said they intend to protect schools from the budget ax, some cuts are inevitable.
''There will be some reductions. It will be reasonable,'' Sansom said.
The state Department of Education proposed cutting $720 million, amounting to $285 per student, or 10 percent of the total.
But the head of the Senate education budget committee, Sen. Steve Wise, a Jacksonville Republican, said his chamber will not cut more than 4 percent from schools.
Education leaders from across the state told Wise's committee Monday that rather than making cuts that could affect the classroom, lawmakers should hold off on spending money to reward the best teachers and the best-performing schools, since that money hasn't been spent.
''This is maybe Chapter One, so we're trying to think ahead as well,'' said Bill Montford, director of the Florida School Boards Association.
School districts trotted out a line-up of lobbyists to plead with lawmakers to stop their tendency to micro-manage school budgets and instead give them flexibility so they can avoid cuts in the classroom.
''Trust us,'' Montford said.
Baker, head of the legislator's Office of Economic and Demographic Research, said Florida has reserves that it could use to cover the shortfall, but spending must be reduced now or the state will have the $2.5 billion shortfall in 2008.
The shortfall drops to $846 million in 2009 but bounces back to $1 billion in 2010.
The grim forecast has prompted Carlton to have second thoughts about the wisdom of supporting the property-tax-cut amendment on January's ballot, because it is expected to shave another $1.6 billion from school budgets.
Crist and legislators have vowed to use state coffers to restore the money school districts would lose if the amendment passes, but they have offered no proposals.
Sansom believes the property-tax-cut proposal is still a good gamble.
``The real estate market has just hit a snag. . . . It's on the brink of coming wide open if insurance and property taxes come down.''
TALLAHASSEE
More state budget cuts loom
State budget woes prompt legislators to consider tuition increases and teacher pay cuts to close an ever-growing spending gap.
By MARY ELLEN KLAS AND GARY FINEOUT
meklas@MiamiHerald.com
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's budget woes got worse Monday as state economists warned that revenues will fall short by $2.5 billion next year unless lawmakers severely cut spending on the state's $71 billion budget.
Among the likely inevitable options to rebalance the budget: increasing university tuition, postponing merit pay for teachers and cutting school budgets, legislative leaders said.
Rep. Ray Sansom and Sen. Lisa Carlton, who head the House and Senate budget committees, said they are prepared to restore the 5 percent university tuition hikes that lawmakers approved in the spring, but Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed. They said they could impose the tuition increases at the Legislature's special session in September and have them take effect in time for the spring semester.
''I wouldn't be surprised if we go back to a tuition increase,'' said Sansom, a Destin Republican. Said Carlton, a Sarasota Republican: ``Perhaps in the spring semester.''
The budget chairmen made their comments after a presentation by the Legislature's chief economist, Amy Baker, who predicted that in addition to the $1.1 billion shortfall that lawmakers face this year, the deficit will climb to $2.5 billion by the 2008-09 budget year.
The budget gap forecast is the worst the state has faced since the 2001 terrorist attacks, when fewer tourists visited Florida and state tax revenues plummeted. This time the budget culprit is the state's declining housing market, which has reduced tax receipts and is expected to remain stagnant for some time.
The deficit amounts to 8 percent of the state's general revenue budget -- mostly from sales tax collections -- in the 2008-09 budget year, Baker told the Legislative Budget Commission as legislators began work on the three-year economic forecast now required by the state Constitution.
''It's clear we're going to need some fiscal strategies in place,'' she said. ``The reserves are inadequate. Other actions are going to be needed to keep the budget in balance.''
Translation: Expect more budget cuts beyond the $1.1 billion that legislators will make in the Sept. 18 special session.
MORE CUTS
Carlton said that in addition to that, legislators plan to reduce another $870 million when they meet in regular session in March. Sansom said the number is between $700 million and $800 million.
While both budget leaders said they intend to protect schools from the budget ax, some cuts are inevitable.
''There will be some reductions. It will be reasonable,'' Sansom said.
The state Department of Education proposed cutting $720 million, amounting to $285 per student, or 10 percent of the total.
But the head of the Senate education budget committee, Sen. Steve Wise, a Jacksonville Republican, said his chamber will not cut more than 4 percent from schools.
Education leaders from across the state told Wise's committee Monday that rather than making cuts that could affect the classroom, lawmakers should hold off on spending money to reward the best teachers and the best-performing schools, since that money hasn't been spent.
''This is maybe Chapter One, so we're trying to think ahead as well,'' said Bill Montford, director of the Florida School Boards Association.
School districts trotted out a line-up of lobbyists to plead with lawmakers to stop their tendency to micro-manage school budgets and instead give them flexibility so they can avoid cuts in the classroom.
''Trust us,'' Montford said.
Baker, head of the legislator's Office of Economic and Demographic Research, said Florida has reserves that it could use to cover the shortfall, but spending must be reduced now or the state will have the $2.5 billion shortfall in 2008.
The shortfall drops to $846 million in 2009 but bounces back to $1 billion in 2010.
The grim forecast has prompted Carlton to have second thoughts about the wisdom of supporting the property-tax-cut amendment on January's ballot, because it is expected to shave another $1.6 billion from school budgets.
Crist and legislators have vowed to use state coffers to restore the money school districts would lose if the amendment passes, but they have offered no proposals.
Sansom believes the property-tax-cut proposal is still a good gamble.
``The real estate market has just hit a snag. . . . It's on the brink of coming wide open if insurance and property taxes come down.''