Democrats Say Scott’s Budget Not So Rosey

February 5, 2014

Democrats argued Tuesday that Gov. Rick Scott was disingenuously portraying his budget for the coming fiscal year as Republicans stayed largely silent during the first legislative hearing on Scott’s $74.2 billion spending plan.

Scott has framed the budget as one that would slash taxes, boost spending on public education and provide relief from waiting lists for state services. But Democrats sought to undermine the blueprint for the budget year that begins July 1, arguing that the governor is overemphasizing the positive aspects of the plan.

Rep. Reggie Fulwood, D-Jacksonville, argued that the governor’s “historic” funding for education, for example, still falls short of the level of per-student funding provided in the 2007-08 budget, the high-water mark for that figure. Scott’s budget does set aside the largest amount of raw dollars for public education in the state’s history.
And Fulwood pointed to the fact that $374.7 million of Scott’s proposed $542 million increase for schools would come from local property taxes.

“It appears in this budget, and I hope you can correct me, that we’re shifting a lot of the funding requirements to our local governments and their property taxes,” he said.

Scott’s budget director Cynthia Kelly responded that the state’s 56.4 percent share of the funding “is one of the highest state percentages in recent years.” However, education funding reports on the governor’s budget website show that the state provided almost 57.2 percent of the money in the state’s main funding source for schools last year.

Democrats repeatedly pushed Kelly for specifics about how many patients would be left on waiting lists for certain state services after Scott’s proposed funding to reduce the size of those waiting lists. Scott would cut waiting lists for some services for the elderly by more than 2,000 individuals and provide services for more than 1,000 of the highest-need individuals seeking waivers from the Agency for Persons with Disabilities.

House Appropriations Chairman Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland, appeared to lose patience with the questions. When House Minority Leader Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, asked Kelly whether the size of the waiting lists for elderly services would be “in the ballpark of 50,000,” the budget director turned and began consulting with a staff member until McKeel stepped in.

“No. Cynthia, don’t. Cynthia, stop,” he said. “She has told you and many members of the caucus that she will get that list to you of the waiting list.”
Pafford said after the meeting that the GOP appeared to be choreographing the session’s budget discussions for political purposes.

“Frankly, the fact that the chair asked the governor’s staff person to not turn around and try to get those numbers when staff appeared to be able to come up with something demonstrates that what the Republican Party of Florida is doing is painting a legislative session that’s going to be smooth sailing to benefit the governor,” he said.

Speaking with reporters later about the APD waiting list, which has about 20,000 on it, McKeel said GOP leaders were trying to chip away at the list as economic conditions allow.

“Look, my goal is to take as many people as we can possibly take off the waiting list,” he said.

And he disputed the notion that Republicans — who offered only a couple of questions about the budget — were giving the governor’s plan an unusually easy hearing. Instead, McKeel said Scott’s office had done a good job this year in briefing lawmakers on the details of his budget.

“We pretty much knew what the governor’s proposals were before today, and that’s a good thing,” he said.

Comments

3 Responses to “Democrats Say Scott’s Budget Not So Rosey”

  1. Gail on February 5th, 2014 10:36 am

    While it appears to be oh so noble and generous that Scott wants to take disabled persons with critical care needs “waiting for services” off of the waiting list for the Agency for Persons with Disabilities……..it is not as great as it seems! I know of persons who waited for services for 18 years, got on the waiver were “denied the critical services”, finally won hearings to gain the critical services and then has had budget cuts,service cuts, denials, etc. for years and years.
    The Agency is painfully underfunded!! All politicians know this and they (BOTH Republicans and Democrats) only “throw a bone” to these vulnerable persons each year which is such a small part of the states money……. federal dollars pick up the higher percentage. They only do this when the media pays attention or to get re-elected. If no one was watching they would do very little, if any thing to help these individuals.Scott is playing politics as usual.

  2. bigbill1961 on February 5th, 2014 9:07 am

    “$374.7 million of Scott’s proposed $542 million increase for schools would come from local property taxes.”

    The lottery was supposed to be such a boon to the education budget. Where is all the lottery money going? It should be a requirement to publish an annual statement of where every penny of the money is going.

  3. Mark on February 5th, 2014 5:42 am

    I find it amazing how Demo-Rats can complain about a budget by the way the are running our national debt to unimaginable heights in DC.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News