Legislators brace for deep budget cuts, vow to protect state workers, Tallahassee Democrat

By Bill Cotterell
November 17, 2008

The Big Bend's new legislators are all Democrats, a big handicap in the Republican-run Legislature, but they remain optimistic about protecting state employees in bitter economic times.

As the House and Senate convene this week for their biennial organizational meetings, taking care of post-election details like assigning parking spaces and offices in the Capitol complex, everyone's minds are focused on Friday. That's when the Revenue Estimating Conference will revise its projections of Florida's tax collections, possibly slashing another $1 billion from the bleak outlook.

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Survey: UF's Machen among highest paid college execs, Tampa Tribune

By John W. Allman
November 17, 2008

As college tuition costs continue to rise and states such as Florida cut funding for public universities, the pay of college presidents across the United States is rising.

The Chronicle of Higher Education's annual executive compensation survey, released today, shows pay plus benefits up 7.6 percent in fiscal year 2007-08 for public university presidents.

The survey listed one Florida president, Bernie Machen of the University of Florida, among the top 10 highest-paid public university executives. He ranked eighth with $731,811 in total compensation last fiscal year.

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State budget: It's going to get worse, Orlando Sentinel

By Aaron Deslatte
November 17, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - Florida's cash crunch hit home for Glen Casel during the summer, when he cut supervised parental visits for Seminole County's abused children to save scarce state dollars.

Now, two or three families at a time are allowed to visit their abused children inside the Salvation Army center in Sanford, with just one social-services worker keeping watch over them all, he said.

It was that, Casel says, or cut back on caseworkers visiting homes where abuse might be occurring.

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Florida budget blues, St. Petersburg Times

November 16, 2008

One in 157 Florida homeowners are in foreclosure proceedings. Sound Advice is shuttering its 22-store, Florida-bred chain by year's end. A pair of Tampa Bay Chevrolet dealers are out of business. Put simply, don't expect Florida's economy to rebound anytime soon.

But that's exactly what Gov. Charlie Crist and the Republican leaders of the Florida Legislature are banking on. Even as Wall Street and Washington rush to adapt the federal financial bailout to the deteriorating economy, Florida's leaders are standing by, going along as if plans made in May can still work in November if the state just keeps dipping into reserves and other accounts. That only delays the tough decisions, and the governor and the Legislature cannot continue to put off the inevitable.

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Rejecting the Capitol's bait, Ocala Star-Banner

November 15, 2008

Even in the old world of the Florida Constitution, Amendment 8 would have failed. It would have given counties the right to ask voters if they wanted to raise the sales' tax to support the local community college.

It didn't impose the tax — but only gave the option to have it. Under the new requirements, an amendment to the constitution requires 60 percent of the vote to pass. Amendment 8 mustered only 43.5 percent of the vote.

The local sales' tax could be imposed for five years, with voter approval needed for a five-year extension after that.

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Florida State Board of Trustees Meeting, WCTV

November 14, 2008

The Florida State board of Trustees held a meeting today (11-14-08) to discuss a number of items. Student fees, budget cuts, and an evaluation of FSU President T.K. Wetherell all took place. By fall 2009, the activity and service fee, health fee, and athletic fees will all increase about 30 to 48 cents per credit hour.FSU President T.K. Wetherell commented on the meeting, saying, "Really the issue with us today was more--we have fewer students so we have fewer students paying those fees and we had to adjust the budget from this current year based on the reductions that come in."Trustees feel that President Wetherell has done a very good job of handling the budget situation, and they have renewed his contract as President of Florida State University.

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Experts: 2 more years budget pain for states, Forbes

By Valerie Bauman
November 13, 2008

Experts in government finance say most state and local governments can expect at least another two years of revenue shortfalls, and that this recession is certain to be worse than the last one.

"It's kind of like getting hit by Katrina II," said Donald Boyd, a senior fellow at The Nelson Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany. "This is probably going to be worse in many respects than the last time, even though the last was the worst in at least half a century. This one will be broader, hitting more states than the last one did."

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Public or private, Florida colleges' tough times getting tougher, Orlando Sentinel

By Luis Zaragoza
November 14, 2008

The past year has been rough for many Florida colleges and universities as the sagging economy put the squeeze on budgets -- and it looks as if the worst is yet to come.

At public universities, more state-mandated cuts are likely before the end of the year. And at private colleges, officials worry students will transfer to less expensive public schools because family finances are being hit by job losses and less access to home-equity and private student loans.

All schools expect financial-aid requests to skyrocket.

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FSU, FAMU mulling a split of the College of Engineering, Tallahassee Democrat

By Stephen D. Price and Angeline J. Taylor
November 13, 2008

Officials at Florida A&M and Florida State universities have begun discussions to possibly split the College of Engineering, a move that would dismantle an agreement in place since 1982.

Florida State officials hope having their own engineering program would improve their chances for an invitation to the exclusive Association of American Universities, officials said.

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Florida finance chief calls for special session to deal with budget, Miami Herald

By Marc Caputo and Mary Ellen Klas
November 11, 2008

Calling Florida's financial outlook ''ugly,'' the chief steward of the state's dwindling finances said Wednesday that Gov. Charlie Crist and the state Legislature need to hold a special lawmaking session as soon as possible.

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said that state economists will likely announce on Nov. 21 that Florida's tax revenue, now $800 million below forecast, will slow by another $1.2 billion, leaving a budget gap of nearly $2 billion.

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Battle rages on accreditation, college money, Florida Times-Union

By Adam Aasen
November 11, 2008

As colleges are vying for their piece of the shrinking government funding pie, there are people who think some schools shouldn't be grabbing a slice.

The long-time feud is over accreditation, the process to determine if a school meets the standards to offer degrees, and many for-profit schools are being attacked for not going through the exact same process as public schools.

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University of Florida Records Hacked, Channel Web

November 12, 2008

The victims are no longer just banks and major retail chains. The University of Florida is the latest university to suffer a data breach. In this case, at least 330,000 current and former dental patients were potentially affected after unauthorized hackers gained access to the school's College of Dentistry computer server, which contained their personal information.

University officials detected the breach Oct. 3 while college IT staff were conducting an upgrade to the server and found that unauthorized software had been installed remotely.

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FCAT scaled back as budget withers, Orlando Sentinel

By Leslie Postal
November 12, 2008

FCAT may be the "big dog" in Florida education, but this year nothing is safe from budget cuts.

To save money, the Florida Department of Education has made some "difficult decisions" and scaled back its Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test program, according to a memo from the department.

Among the changes: the elimination of the summer makeup FCAT exam for high-school students; the cancellation of computer-based makeup exams; and discontinuation of the online FCAT Parent Network that allows parents to look up their kids' scores.

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State budget directors says Florida may see billion-dollar dip in collected taxes, News-Press (Ft. Myers)

By Bill Cotterell
November 10, 2008

The state budget director said today that next week’s revenue-estimating conference might result in a billion-dollar reduction in Florida’s projected tax collections.

That’s on top of the $1.4 billion already lopped off of revenue expectations for the current fiscal year. Jerry McDaniel, head of the Office of Policy and Budget, met with Gov. Charlie Crist for about 45 minutes this afternoon to go over options for coping with the state’s continued revenue shortfall.

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Jockying time in Tallahassee, Herald Tribune (Sarasota)

By Zac Anderson

November 10, 2008


The elections may be over, but the intrigue is just beginning over who will hold leadership positions in the state Legislature, and a few local politicians could wield significant power.

The area's two most senior legislators, Bradenton Republicans Ron Reagan and Bill Galvano, are both slated for top leadership positions as they enter their final terms. New Sen. Nancy Detert also could be a player.

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Pizzas get sliced, bugs snubbed as universities tighten budgets, Bloomberg.com

By Oliver Staley
November 10, 2008

The state of Georgia, pinched by falling tax revenue, is slashing $136 million from the budgets of its public colleges. To save, the schools are cutting jobs, services and even subscriptions to obscure academic journals.

Jill Parrott, 27, a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of Georgia in Athens, said she may lose access to the Rhetoric Society Quarterly, which costs the school $200 a year.

The library, which is canceling at least 660 journals to save $1.66 million annually, is among hundreds of departments, at 35 schools in the University System of Georgia, that are scrimping. The U.S. economic slowdown means collections of sales and corporate taxes are falling, squeezing state budgets. Like Georgia's, university systems in Nevada, California and New York are among those already facing budget reductions.

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