Senate Votes to cut $500 million from current budget

Thursday, March 6, 2008


By DAVID ROYSE
Associated Press Writer

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- State spending this year would be about a half billion dollars less than planned under a bill the Senate passed Thursday.

With Florida's economy in a tailspin and residents not spending money, incoming taxes are expected to be about 13 percent lower this year than what legislators initially expected to have when they wrote the budget last year.

Senators passed the $503.3 million reduction in the current year's approximately $70 billion budget to bring state spending in line with lower-than-expected tax collections.

The House passed its budget-cutting proposal a day earlier, although the two plans differ slightly. Those differences are expected to be worked out in talks that began Thursday.

Senators did change their cut plan slightly, shifting $2.5 million into the criminal justice budget that could mean prosecutors and public defenders won't have to take unwanted time off. The prospect of furloughs had been raised as lawmakers wrote the budget cut bill.

To avoid that cut, the Senate approved using money from various fines that are expected to be collected between now and the end of the year.

Sen. Victor Crist, who chairs the Senate committee that writes the criminal justice part of the budget, warned that when lawmakers start writing next year's budget, there will still be difficulties.

"This is a quick fix to help them get through this year's budget," said Crist, R-Tampa, who sponsored the amendment shifting the money.

The bill to make the cuts (HB 7009) passed 26-13, almost entirely along party lines, with Republicans in favor and Democrats against.

Democrats had urged that the state dig more deeply into its savings accounts to avoid deep program cuts and consider finding new sources of money - possibly including tax increases.

Republicans in control of the Legislature, however, oppose tax increases.

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Reprinted from the Associated Press