TreasureCoast Newspapers
Geoff Oldfather: Budget cuts border on epic, but story's moral is kids lose
By Geoff Oldfather (Contact)
Monday, March 31, 2008
TALLAHASSEE — "CHILDREN'S WEEK"
"Celebrating Florida's Parents and Children." - Large banner decorating the first floor of the Capitol rotunda in Tallahassee.
A gloomy pall hangs over the state Capitol in Tallahassee, a looming black budget cloud with distant rumbling threat of thunder just like the one that spit lightning over the land of Mordor in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
The mood was so black Monday when I went to a news conference by House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-Miami, and budget and appropriations chairman Ray Sansom, R-Destin, I half expected to see trolls guarding the gates.
The specter of that vision has people like Suzy Hutcheson running for cover.
"We're terrified," Hutcheson said.
Hutcheson runs Helping People Succeed, formerly Tri-County Tec, the agency that helps TreasureCoast residents with mental and physical disabilities find jobs and live independently.
"We're to bare bones right now, and if APD (Agency for Persons with Disabilities) cuts another 3 percent or 4 percent, we'll start cutting services — and staff," Hutcheson said.
"We may not be able to keep some people in the jobs they have now, and it's almost certain we won't be able to support them in new jobs," Hutcheson said.
There's irony here.
Inside the rotunda and draping the walls and banisters and balconies of the first three floors are thousands of colorful banners, projects and paintings, and messages of hope from children and schools all over Florida.
Outside, the reality is this is the worst economic crisis the state's faced in modern times.
It may be Children's Week, but this isn't going to be the year of the child in Florida.
Or the year of arts and culture or parks and recreation or subsidized eyeglasses for the elderly or anything that doesn't fit with the only three priorities of lawmakers, in this order: public safety, health and education.
Rubio and Sansom planned their news conference to present the House's budget proposal: $65.1 billion, down almost 10 percent from last year, and actually less than the 2005-2006 budget year.
They said the state's revenue projections are trending down even from the pessimistic predictions of just a few weeks ago.
"Projections for March are a little less than we anticipated," Sansom said, calling it a pattern that could carry into next year.
Both lawmakers stressed a responsible budget that meets the constitutional requirement to have a balanced budget. Although it may hurt now, the budget sets the stage for economic recovery. Just when is anybody's guess.
Rubio summed up the legislative mindset: "I've started getting letters (about) cultural programs and what a travesty it would be" to cut such programs.
"I don't have anything against cultural programs, but we certainly aren't going to pick them over life-and-death issues," he said.
So there.
It's so bad, Sansom said he's proposing legislation that would let the governor transfer up to half of what's called the state's rainy day fund and as much as $1 billion from the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund — created from Florida's legal settlement with tobacco companies — to the general revenue budget. That would allow the state to pay its bills without calling a special session.
Rubio said it's the only way to be ready for the worst.
"We're in uncharted waters," Rubio said. "We've never been in this place."
I've never been there either, but I've seen it.
It's called Mordor.
Geoff Oldfather is writing from Tallahassee this week.