Lawmakers work on $2.3B deficit
TALLAHASSEE (AP) – Lawmakers will have to make deeper spending cuts than anticipated because December tax collections fell $100 million below forecast, Senate President Jeff Atwater said as the Legislature convened Monday in special session to confront a growing budget deficit.
If the December trend continues through June 30, when the budget year ends, Florida could be another $600 million to $700 million in the hole, said Atwater, R-North Palm Beach.
During the special session, the Republican-controlled Legislature is looking at a combination of options including spending cuts, reserves, and higher court fees and fines to close at least a $2.3 billion budget deficit.
Committees begin hearing proposals for about $1 billion in overall spending cuts, but both chambers are considering a relatively small 2 percent reduction for public schools, about $140 per student.
“They projected death,” said Senate Education Prekindergarten-12 Appropriations Chairman Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville. “We’re not quite there yet.”
Florida School Boards Association executive director Wayne Blanton said the cut is “manageable right now, but that pretty well takes most districts’ reserves down to basically nothing.”
Reductions of about 4 percent have been proposed for higher education.
Other cuts under consideration would reduce money for promoting tourism, put off buying new cruisers for state troopers, trim the number of children who received state-subsidized child care, and take nearly $118 million from affordable housing programs.
Hospitals, nursing homes and health maintenance organizations may get less money to treat poor people. Child protection services and memory disorder clinics for Alzheimer’s patients also face cuts.