More for classes, less for offices, St. Pete Times

January 25, 2009

There's growing bipartisan support for the notion that Florida's mechanism for funding public schools isn't sufficient. In Seminole County, the longtime Republican stronghold north of Orlando, there is talk about raising property taxes for schools. The state Board of Education has suggested it would appeal to the Legislature to improve schools' fiscal future. That's why it's all the more pressing that Pinellas County School superintendent Julie Janssen reduce the district's administrative costs, long among the highest in the state.

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Florida should make the sales tax work harder, St. Pete Times

January 22, 2009

State budget
Make sales tax work harder
Once more, the less fortunate are asked to bear the brunt of tough times — cuts in services and in education. Where are the beneficiaries of the sales tax economy?

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Sansom breaks his silence to talk taxes, The Buzz (St. Pete Times)

January 19, 2009

House Speaker Ray Sansom, who has refused interviews at the Capitol since coming under fire for his relationship with Northwest Florida State College and Destin developer Jay Odom, broke his silence Friday for an interview with the Times/Herald to spell out his view of taxes. The tax debate is likely to dominate much of the regular session in March, when lawmakers must decide how to balance the budget amid another $3.5-billion shortfall. The question will be how far conservative Republicans in the House are willing to go to raise new money to offset more painful budget cuts.

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Over $23M expected to be cut from schools, WFTV Channel 9

January 14, ,2009

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- State lawmakers are expected to approve big budget cuts for local schools Wednesday. Over $23 million will be lost and that will mean massive cuts of jobs, programs, and services.

Superintendent Ron Blocker said that if the budget cuts occur, administrators inside the Orange County School Board headquarters building could not promise any programs and services would be safe next school year.

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Florida CFO Sink discusses state's budget woes, Jacksonville Business Journal

January 15, 2009
By Rachel Witkowski

Improving Florida’s economy will largely depend on diversifying industries, providing more funding for education and attracting higher wage jobs, said Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink before a group at Jacksonville University’s Davis College of Business Thursday.

More state budget cuts are expected but there are tax changes that can be proposed by the state to mend the cuts, she said.

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Democrats talk taxes to balance state budget, WOKV (Jacksonville)

January 15, 2009
By Jared Halpern

Florida taxpayers were spared in the latest budget battle in Tallahassee. But when lawmakers return to the Capitol in March, a revenue play may be on the table.

"What else in the equation has to change?" Senate President Jeff Atwater asked after approving a special session budget package that makes widespread spending cuts to education and social services. "What else about the manner we have established the revenue structure of the state has to change? There are no easy answers here left."

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Florida state budget: Tough times call for tough decisions, Jacksonville Times Union

January 15, 2009
By Brandon Larrabee

TALLAHASSEE - Lawmakers finished work Wednesday on a plan to patch a $2.4 billion hole in the state budget, ending their 10-day special session but realizing that a tougher task lies ahead when the regular session convenes in March. The Senate approved the measure, which raids trust funds and cuts state agencies while increasing traffic fines, on a 27-13 vote. All but one Democrat voted no. The House vote, 74-43, was along party lines. Republicans said their plan was the best that could be expected in a climate of tumbling state tax collections; GOP leaders made it clear even before the session began that any tax increases to patch the formerly $66 billion budget were off the table in a troubled economy. "We have less money because Floridians have less money," said Rep. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, who chairs the House panel overseeing education funding. Democrats blasted the plan for, among other things, including a $466 million cut to education and slashing bonuses for teachers with National Board Certification by 20 percent. They lamented the lack of opportunities to vote for closing sales-tax exemptions or raising the cigarette tax.

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State fiscal strategy running on empty, Ocala Star-Banner

January 13, 2009


There really is nothing "special" about the current special session of the Florida Legislature. Sure, lawmakers are expected to approve a plan to erase a $2.3 billion budget shortfall for this year by again raiding state trust funds, slashing education and health care, raising traffic fines and putting a kibosh on the state's successful Florida Forever land conservation program. It is the same strategy we saw last year.

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Florida lawmakers leave $130 million in gambling money on hte table, Casino Gambling Web

January 12, 2009

Legislators in the state of Florida are patting themselves on the back for working to fix a budget deficit without having to raise taxes. What they are not admitting is how they left $130 million of possible revenue on the table while cutting funds going to education in the state.

The lawmakers in Florida called a special legislative session to deal with the shortcomings of the state budget. They vowed at the beginning of the session to not make tax hikes to cover the budget problems. They succeeded in that. It is their failure, however, to approve a Seminole Indian casino gambling compact that had Governor Charlie Crist annoyed.

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Florida TaxWatch budget plan finds $2.68B, Orlando Business Journal

January 9, 2009

Florida can save billions of dollars by improving cost-effectiveness, increasing government productivity and enhancing revenue maximization efforts.

That’s the finding in a report issued Thursday by Florida TaxWatch. The nonpartisan, nonprofit research institute and government watchdog in Tallahassee made 42 recommendations totaling an estimated $2.68 billion in cost savings and revenue enhancements.

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The report this article is based on is available here.http://www.floridataxwatch.org./

Florida's GOP: No new taxes, cut the budget, Creative Loafing (Tampa)

January 7, 2009
By Wayne Garcia


As you read this, the Florida Legislature is meeting in Tallahassee, ostensibly to plug a $3 billion gap in the state's ailing budget because of losses in sales tax and other collections in this recession.

The real purpose is to continue the Republican-led dismantling of state and local governments in a quest to fulfill the 1990s mantra of "less government, fewer taxes and more personal responsibility." State lawmakers are set to work on the continued gutting of Florida's public infrastructure -- health care and education foremost among them -- through Jan. 12.

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Florida education faces big cuts, News Channel 7

January 5, 2009

Schools face the largest cuts in the Florida’s budget. Lawmakers will consider chopping another 360 million in education funding this special session.

School administrators are considering laying-off teachers, cancelling field trips, and reducing bus routes to keep up with the proposed cuts.

Florida Education Association Spokesman Mark Pudlow says lawmakers need to eliminate tax loopholes to spare education from the budget ax.

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Florida legislature about to chop budgets for education, other services, Miami Herald

January 3, 2009
By Steve Bousquet

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida legislators will start the new year in familiar fashion: by cutting aid to schools and other programs, borrowing money, skimming cash surpluses and hiking traffic and court fees to patch a $2.3 billion hole in a leaky state budget.

The special session that begins Monday will bring the third major round of cuts in 10 months and is the result of a prolonged nosedive in tax revenues caused by the recession-wracked real estate and credit markets.

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Lawmakers to tackle budget shortfall, Tampa Bay Online

January 3, 2009
By Carl Orth

NEW PORT RICHEY - Lawmakers serving west Pasco County are gearing up for a special session of the Florida Legislature next week to work on the state's budget deficit of more than $2.3 billion.

State Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Dunedin, state Rep. John Legg, R-Port Richey, and state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, will head for Tallahassee for the overtime session, which begins Monday and runs through Jan. 16.

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Stop raiding trust fund to balance budget on backs of needy children, Treasure Coast Palm

January 2, 2009

Funny, but when Florida is looking for a good fiscal conservative, it finds one in a liberal Democrat's son, Bud Chiles. Chiles has threatened to sue the state if it continues to raid the $1.2 billion state trust created in the name of the late Gov. Lawton Chiles to sustain health programs for the young and elderly.

Meanwhile, the alleged conservatives — Gov. Charlie Crist and Florida legislators — borrowed more than $300 million from the fund in April to help balance the budget. And, instead of curbing ridiculous tax loopholes and reforming inefficiencies, they're looking at raiding even more trust funds in the face of a multibillion-dollar deficit.

So much for fiscal conservatism.

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Special session called to balance Florida budget, WTSP 10Connects (Tampa)

December 30, 2008

Tallahassee, Florida - It's official. The Florida Legislature will meet in special session Jan. 5-16 to true up the state's budget and the $2.3 billion gap between revenue and spending. Gambling and cigarette taxes are definitely out.

Class-size spending and increased speeding fines are in.

House Speaker Ray Sansom and Senate President Jeff Atwater Tuesday evening signed the call for the special session, a constitutionally required step for the Legislature to meet outside its required 60-day spring session. The call signed by Atwater and Sansom also sets out the limits of what can be considered for lawmakers. Anything outside the call requires a super majority of lawmakers to be taken up.

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Budget Hole Has Tax Exemptions in Sites Again, Tampa Tribune

December 21, 2008
By David Royse

TALLAHASSEE - Businesses across Florida are carefully watching the Legislature with the deepening cash crisis facing state government leading to the most serious talk of eliminating some tax exemptions since former President John McKay took on the tax structure eight years ago.

Democrats and advocates for government programs that annually face a difficult time in the budget process have long suggested that Florida's hodge podge of exemptions to the sales tax are unfair and should be reviewed.

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A better way for Florida's budget, St. Pete Times

December 21, 2008

To hear the talk from Tallahassee, Florida need do nothing differently to weather the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Gov. Charlie Crist's suggestions for dealing with a $2.3-billion shortfall during next month's two-week special session are the same old ideas that are neither bold nor visionary. He proposes cutting state agency spending across the board, draining state savings accounts, borrowing money to build facilities in lieu of paying in cash and ratifying the controversial gambling pact with the Seminole Indian tribe. Such a short-term strategy digs an even deeper budget hole for next year. There is a better way, and it involves raising some additional revenue.

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Spending cuts, gambling pact at heart of state budget plan, St. Pete Times

December 19, 2008

TALLAHASSEE — Florida lawmakers can fill a $2.3-billion budget hole by trimming government spending, nearly emptying savings accounts and approving a gambling agreement with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, according to a draft document approved by Gov. Charlie Crist.

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States worry about slumping retail sales revenue, Reuters

December 15, 2008
By Jim Christie

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Todd Gerardo's layoff means work for someone else in Arizona, where state officials this month will have more than doubled their staff with new employees for processing unemployment benefits.

Gerardo, of Gilbert, Arizona, said he knew his days were numbered as a car salesman when he managed to make only minimum wage last month. His dealership let him go on December 3.

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