Senate passes frugal budget with pay cuts for governor, lawmakers

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A frugal budget that includes pay cuts for Gov. Charlie Crist and lawmakers as well as spending reductions in health care, education, prisons, the courts and nearly every other state service passed Wednesday in the Florida Senate.

The House, meanwhile, debated its version but will not vote until Thursday.

The Senate's $65.9 billion budget for the next fiscal year is about $4 billion short of what Florida is spending now because tax revenues have fallen due to slumping state and national economies. The House measure is even more austere, about $800 million below the Senate.

The Senate added the 10 percent pay cut for Crist, Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, the three Cabinet members and legislators without debate or discussion. It would raise $586,426 to restore cuts in early learning programs including school readiness, pre-kindergarten, child care and families with disabilities and special health care needs.

"If we're asking everyone else to have to cut their budget, we in the Legislature should do exactly the same," said Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who offered the proposal.

Crist would be the biggest loser under the Senate cut, taking a $13,294 salary decrease, and lawmakers from both chambers would take a roughly $3,000 reduction, a bit more for their leaders. The House included in its budget a smaller pay cut, shrinking legislators' salaries by about $760 a year, but leaving the governor and Cabinet alone.

The two chambers, though, are in agreement on a 6 percent tuition increase for community college and university students and neither has a tax increase, although the Senate would raise court filing fees.

"We've done more with less," said Senate Fiscal Policy and Calendar Committee Chairwoman Lisa Carlton, R-Osprey. "We have lived without our means."

Democrats, most of whom voted against the budget, offered two amendments that together would have raised about $400 million by closing what they said are loopholes that let big businesses shift Florida tax liabilities to subsidiaries in low-tax or no-tax states. Both failed.

"We could have raised money without affecting the average taxpayer," said Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller of Cooper City.

The Senate vote was 26-12. All Republicans voted for the budget bill (SB 2900) and all except one Democrat - Sen. Mandy Dawson of Fort Lauderdale - opposed it.

The Senate also rejected efforts to restore cuts to prisons, the court system and a variety of education, senior citizen and children's health care programs by shifting money from a huge rail project in central Florida. It would reroute freight trains for a commuter rail system in Orlando.

After the House votes on Thursday, committees from both chambers will have to resolve differences in each section of the budget.

A major one is the House's failure to provide any money in the new budget year, which begins July 1, for Everglades restoration and the Florida Forever land-buying program, which get $100 million and $300 million in the Senate bill.

A big difference in health care is whether to pay for drugs for some people with catastrophic illnesses and transplant recipients. The House would, but the Senate wouldn't. The House, though, would cut spending for hospitalization for the same people.

Other differences include the amount of money the state requires schools to collect from tax dollars. The House would keep the amount the same. The Senate would require school boards to collect about $500 million more. The additional dollars would come from new development and property value increases. They also include a shift of some local tax dollars now earmarked for school building to school operating expenses such as salaries.

Despite those differences, the two chambers are fairly close on spending for primary and secondary schools, both cutting them under 2 percent. The Senate plans to reduce per-student spending by $116 while the House cut is $86. It would be the first per-student cut since 2001-02.

One of the most protracted debates in the House on Wednesday came over a plan in its budget (HB 5001) to close the A.G. Holley Hospital in Lantana. It's the last remaining hospital in the nation dedicated to treating people with difficult tuberculosis cases.

Rep. Yolly Roberson, D-Miami, who is a nurse, called closing the hospital "a public health disaster waiting to happen."

But Republicans said there are 2,400 hospital rooms in facilities around the state that will be able to care for the hospital's patients. They said the Palm Beach County hospital is a remnant of a bygone time when TB was a much bigger problem. It treated fewer than 100 patients last year.

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Associated Press Writer David Royse contributed to this report.


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