State: Complaints rise over Bush's proposed cuts

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush proposed a budget last week that he said was full of "tough cuts." Now criticism is pouring down on him from across the state as people discover just how tough those cuts are.

Teenage girls in Pinellas will be writing sad letters to state officials, hoping to stop Bush's proposal to wipe out $10-million for a network of 19 centers that help troubled adolescents. The Pinellas Park center would lose $580,000, or 60 percent of its budget.

"We'll have to close our doors," said executive director Sally Zeh.

County governments have found 16 instances where Bush would cut state aid, from recycling grants to mobile home fees. The biggest is a $64-million shift in the pretrial costs of juvenile detention. County leaders say those shifts will require higher property taxes, wiping out Bush's promise of more tax relief.

The Florida Association of Counties estimates Pinellas would have to find $5.2-million for new detention costs; Hillsborough, $5.7-million; Pasco, $1.9-million.

University presidents are issuing dire warnings of enrollment caps and hiring freezes. Florida State University president T.K. Wetherell, a politically savvy ex-lawmaker and a veteran of budget wars, is tapping his strongest constituency: 250,000 FSU alumni.

In a letter to Bush, Wetherell said: "Because our No. 1 priority is to serve students, I feel it is necessary to notify our 250,000 alumni (140,000 of whom are Floridians) as to the impacts these recommendations would have on our university."

Wetherell, a Democrat who endorsed Bush's re-election, didn't have to spell it out: One of FSU's most powerful graduates is Senate President Jim King, who has promised to consider higher taxes over deep budget cuts, an idea Bush has flatly rejected.

The cry for more tax dollars from Tallahassee is an annual occurrence. Advocacy groups, school districts and universities say they never get enough.

But the criticism of Bush's budget has a vehemence not heard in recent years and much of the outcry is coming from fellow Republicans.

For example, Bush seeks to cut $400-million from the Department of Environmental Protection, partly by taking money from separate accounts that pay for local recycling grants, restore lakes, clean up pollution and control weeds and pests.

Some of those so-called trust funds are supported by fees that polluting industries pay to fund inspections and cleanups. Bush wants to shift that money into the state's operating budget.

"We should not be taking money from a trust fund that's flush and using it for other purposes," said Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, vice chairwoman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee.

DEP spokeswoman Deena Wells said some programs paid for with trust fund money will be paid for in other ways.

When times are tough, Wells said, "it's about prioritizing and funding core agency missions."

Phil Leary of the Florida Farm Bureau, many of whose members backed Bush's re-election, says vital agricultural programs are taking a hit in Bush's budget, including a Department of Agriculture office that helps farmers cope with water pollution.

Key agricultural inspection programs would be cut, including a program to inspect honey bees, which are vulnerable to exotic pests and which pollinate Florida crops, including its world-famous oranges.

The fishing industry, with help from Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Bronson, hopes to prevent the privatization of 54 state employees who regulate aquaculture, which includes clam, oyster and alligator farms.

Bronson's office says aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing segments of Florida's farming industry. But Bush decided nurturing clam and oyster beds was not part of state government's "core mission," a term he used often when he rolled out his $54-billion spending plan last week.

Bush's budget says regulation of aquaculture "could more appropriately be provided by industry." Bronson, a Republican, disagrees.

"You need some independent third party disinterested regulatory structure, making sure standards are complied with," said Bronson spokesman Terry McElroy. "There would be a perceived conflict of interest if an industry were asked to do that themselves."

Bush also would sacrifice $62-million in prevention programs for juveniles while spending $76-million for 4,148 more prison beds.

"We have an obligation to make prisoners serve their time," Bush told reporters when he released his budget last week.

Sally Zeh doesn't understand it.

As executive director of the PACE Center for Girls in Pinellas Park, Zeh counsels 14-year-old girls who have suffered physical or sexual abuse, have had trouble in school or with the police, and have abused drugs or alcohol. She said PACE's programs have been rated very effective by Bush's own Department of Juvenile Justice.

The Pinellas PACE center serves 51 girls during the day, and 320 more on evenings and weekends.

"The idea of tearing apart something that actually works is mind-boggling," said Zeh, who added she moved from Michigan partly because of the PACE centers' reputation. "It just breaks my heart to think that we would have to start over."

Zeh was among dozens of advocates who appeared before the Pinellas County legislative delegation Tuesday in Tarpon Springs.

Also there was Arthur O'Hara, executive director of R'Club Child Care of Pinellas County. The nonprofit prekindergarten program helps more than 60 children who have autism and developmental disabilities.

O'Hara got $127,500 in state money last year, or nearly 30 percent of his budget, to operate programs at Paul B. Stephens Exceptional Center in Clearwater and Nina Harris Exceptional Student Education Center in St. Petersburg. He now worries his programs could fall victim to budget cuts.

"I know this is not a good year," O'Hara told legislators. "I'm asking you to look at what you did last year, and keep that amount the same."

-- Times staff writer Michael Sandler contributed to this report.

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