Gary Fineout
This was supposed to be a year of budgetary plenty in Tallahassee.
Florida’s gradually rebounding economy is helping swell the state’s bank accounts and Republican Gov. Rick Scott has grand plans to spend it on boosting school spending and by slashing taxes and fees by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Initially, it appeared legislators would accept many of Scott’s spending proposals during the 60-day session that starts next week. However, the cheerful optimism GOP legislative leaders have shown recently is being replaced by the prospect of another round of bruising budget battles.
Several reasons loom behind the cautious attitude. One of them is the likely loss of more than $1 billion in federal money the state has been receiving to pay hospitals that treat the poor and uninsured. Legislators could piece together a way to replace the money, but that may make it hard to go along with some items on Scott’s wish list.
“There’s a possibility that everyone is going to have to scale back their demands … based upon what we find out over the next 60 days,” said Sen. Tom Lee, a Brandon Republican and the Senate’s main budget writer.
During a brutal re-election campaign, Scott made a series of promises to voters. He pledged to cut taxes by $1 billion during the next two years, while still spending a record amount on public school students and setting aside more for environmental programs.
In late January, the governor rolled out a budget that stuck to those promises. Scott asked legislators to cut taxes by nearly $700 million, including proposals to cut deeply the taxes now charged on cellphone and cable TV bills as well exempting college textbooks from state and local sales taxes.
“The way we keep our economy growing even stronger is to give families back more of the money they already make,” Scott said then.
Scott’s nearly $77 billion budget proposal relies on economic projections that the state is recovering from the past deep recession. Florida’s main budget account is expected to grow nearly 5 percent in the fiscal year that ends June 30. Economists also predict an added 4 percent growth in the 2015-16 fiscal year.
The overall budget, though, includes a mix of state tax dollars and federal aid for programs such as Medicaid. That’s why the loss of federal money could put pressure on legislators. Florida law requires that they pass a balanced budget each year.
Scott assumed in his budget proposal that the federal aid would continue. Federal officials put the state on notice this past year that the money would likely end in 2015 and so far have showed no signs of changing that stance.
Even if the money can be replaced, there’s no guarantee Scott’s tax cut proposals will make it through the current session.
Both Senate President Andy Gardiner and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli have been hesitant to endorse either the amount, or the type of tax cuts sought by the governor — although Scott’s fellow Republicans said they support cutting taxes when possible.
“I’m a believer that when you have the opportunity to give money back to taxpayers in our state you do that,” Crisafulli said.
Democratic leaders are seriously questioning some of Scott’s proposed tax cuts, saying the roughly $40 an average Floridian would save annually on their cellphone bill shouldn’t come at the expense of those in need of help.
“You can’t say that’s going to change the life of the average Floridian,” House Democratic Leader Mark Pafford said. “It looks good on the next campaign advertisement that goes out for a particular candidate, but that’s not going to make or break anybody.”
—
Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
