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News$1.1 billion left to slash from budgetSeptember 7, 2007Pensacola News Journal By Jim Ash TALLAHASSEE - Welcome to budget-cutting, Tallahassee style, where the economy is limping, the state revenue is $1.1 billion short of its current spending plan and nervous agency chiefs are getting creative. The Department of Management Services, the state's chief housekeeping agency, says it can slash its budget by canceling a massive telephone contract. Taxpayers would end up paying more when state and local agencies negotiate individual contracts, but DMS magically could wipe $48 million off its books. "I want to clarify that in some instances, trust-fund reductions may lead to further increases down the road," DMS Secretary Linda South warned lawmakers when she submitted the paperwork. Lawmakers will have to rely on more than sleight of hand to make cuts called for in a special session that has not been formally announced but is expected to begin Sept. 18. State economists last week projected state tax revenues will be $2.5 billion less than expected next year. That means more cuts in the regular session next spring and little room for shifting budget columns and papering over expenditures. Lawmakers assured department heads that the $71 billion-plus state budget would have to be cut by slightly more than 4 percent in the special session, not quite as painful as the 10 percent cuts Gov. Charlie Crist ordered them to propose as contingencies. The House and Senate remain divided on their basic approaches. The Senate insists that across-the-board cutting is the fairest way to spread the pain. The House wants to target its cuts to preserve the most essential services. Crist wants to avoid education-spending cuts. Some legislative leaders have vowed to preserve the medically needy program that helps pay bills for the sick and the poor. Others have promised not to touch the Department of Juvenile Justice. No votes were taken in last week's series of marathon budget workshops, and the powerful Republican committee chairs did not tip their hands about which way they will proceed. Democrats expect most of the decisions to be made by the Republican leaders behind closed doors and asked at least to be kept apprised. "We'll see that you get the list," Dean Cannon, chairman of the House Economic Expansion and Infrastructure Council, assured West Palm Beach Democrat Susan Bucher as the panel prepared to adjourn last week. Meanwhile, agency heads will plead their case to skeptical lawmakers eager to separate real from imagined cuts. Death Row attorneys said last week their budget is too lean for a cut, but they can manufacture one - if the Legislature simply agrees to count $350,000 that comes in every year from the federal courts as new money. Under orders from Crist to identify 10 percent in potential savings in every department, agency chiefs presented their proposals last week to legislative committees. Some lawmakers were skeptical. "I think some agencies are taking this very seriously," said Rep. Rich Glorioso, a conservative Republican budget hawk from Plant City. "Some are just going through the exercise." Glorioso singled out a proposal by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to save $22,000 by asking someone else to administer a program to train school crossing guards. The program would still be paid for by a $91,000 state grant from the Department of Transportation. |
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