Florida's plan, get rid of as many jobs as possible

From the Orlando Sentinel

by Aaron Deslatte

TALLAHASSEE As Florida lawmakers rush to slash $4 billion in state spending, critics are warning the deep reductions will cost the one thing politicians promised to deliver: jobs.

With both the House and Senate advancing competing spending proposals this week, Democrats say the plans slash $1 billion-plus in classroom aid, lay off close to 6,000 state workers and cut retirement pay for 572,000 public employees. That leaves out the mammoth tax cuts sought by Gov. Rick Scott under the auspices of economic development, critics say.

House budget chief Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, said budget writers simply had no flexibility to embrace the governor's $1.7 billion pitch to cut corporate and property taxes this year.

"It's just a tough year," Grimsley said. "It's something we would like to do. We just can't do it at this time."

The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday passed its $66.5 billion spending plan over the objections of dozens of law enforcement officers, firefighters, teachers and union representatives who said lawmakers were unfairly directing the pain to public workers by requiring them to start making 3-percent retirement contributions.

"We keep hearing we need to be more like the private sector," said Capt. Frank Fabrizio, with the Orange County Sheriff's Office "This is going to shock you: I agree. That means you're going to have to start giving everyone in this room a raise." But the committee approved the pension bill, HB1405, on a 15-8 party-line vote.

Meanwhile, Bob Burleson, president of the Florida Transportation Builders' Association, said the House's plan to sweep $300 million out of the state's road-building trust fund to balance the books would delay or scrap $1 billion in road-projects and cost 28,500 jobs.

"We all came up here saying we wanted to create jobs," said House Minority Leader Ron Saunders, D-Key West. "This budget has the exact opposite effect."

Both chambers' budgets include cutting about 5,300 state worker positions, not including privatization of prisons. House Republicans rejected a Democratic attempt to delete budget language to privatize public prisons and probation services in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

Rep. Marty Kiar, D-Davie, offered an amendment to strip out the prison privatization language, which tasks the Department of Corrections to outsource adult prisons and community supervision services in the two most populous counties in Florida.

The Senate's $69.8 billion budget would go further, privatizing 16 adult, youth and work-release facilities from Manatee and Indian River counties south to Monroe to a private vendor. Those facilities house about 16,100 prisoners at a cost of $390 million last year, and the budget envisions a 7 percent savings if they go private.

But State Corrections PBA President Jim Baiardi told the House committee doing so risked worsening exploding gang activity.

"I think this is starting down a terrible, terrible path, one we may not be able to come back from," Baiardi said, calling prisoners and probationers in the two counties some of the most violent in the state. "To just hand them over to private companies is unreal."

But Rep. Rich Glorioso, the Plant City Republican overseeing the corrections budget, said times were tough and the department was charged with making sure the handover would be done safely.

"All over the country, where privatization has occurred it has saved money while protecting public safety," Glorioso said.

The amendment failed, 8-15, on a party-line vote. The committee voted out the budget by the same tally shortly afterward.

adeslatte@orlandosentinel.com or 850-22-5564. Follow him on Twitter@adeslatte.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-legislature-budget-debate-begins-20110330,0,7048010.story