State: Spots marked for budget knife

TALLAHASSEE -- The potential human toll of more than $1-billion in budget cuts came into sharper focus on Wednesday, from threatened state employee layoffs to a cutoff of prenatal care to poor pregnant women to a surge in uninsured patients in emergency rooms.

With a special session on the budget starting Monday, House and Senate budget committees began three bleak days of workshops devoted to line-by-line reviews of the current budget. The job is just beginning. Lawmakers are weighing cuts in existing programs and halting funded programs that have not yet begun.

Gov. Jeb Bush, in the Capitol to speak to seniors gathered for the "Silver-Haired Legislature," said the budget cuts will be "quite a traumatic experience."

While all of the suggested cuts are preliminary, and many are so drastic they will never be implemented, the budget plans that began to surface Wednesday made clear that legislators are considering severe cuts in basic services.

Sen. Ron Silver, D-North Miami Beach, chairman of the Senate budget subcommittee for human services, emphasized that the review of cuts was an exercise, with no votes scheduled until the two-week special session starts next week.

He and other senators identified $254-million in potential cuts, targeting poor pregnant women, the elderly and the disabled for outright cuts, requiring them to pay more for some Medicaid services or raising the eligibility requirements.

"These are the extreme positions being presented to us," Silver said.

Bob Sharpe, director of the state Medicaid program, cautioned senators that a proposed cut in the federal-state insurance program for poor pregnant women could mean more deliveries of sick babies.

Also Wednesday, political differences between the Senate and House appeared to widen, even though both chambers are Republican-controlled. That spells trouble because the two-week timetable for the session is too tight to allow for much disagreement.

The biggest battle appears to be over a cherished component of Bush's agenda: a continued cut in the intangibles tax on stocks and bonds.

Under Bush and the GOP Legislature, Florida is in the third year of a gradual phaseout of the intangibles tax.

GOP senators want to repeal the third year of the tax cut to free up some money, and avoid at least some of the budget cuts.

On the other hand, Bush has said he will consider delaying the tax cut -- but not repealing it. House Speaker Tom Feeney has said the cut should take place.

Indeed, on Tuesday, Bush said taxes are not part of the special session agenda. But on Wednesday senators in his own party said they could easily muster the two-thirds vote needed to add that issue to the agenda without the governor's approval.

"There is very strong feeling in the Senate that we're in extraordinary circumstances, and we need to do what we need to do to relieve the system of as much strain as we can," said Sen. Don Sullivan, R-Seminole, chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee on education.

Answered Bush: "Repeal is not an option, but a delay of the third installment of the intangible tax (cut) is and has been on the table."

Told of Bush's opposition to repealing the tax cut, Sullivan said: "I think the governor will come kicking and screaming to the party, but he will show up and dressed appropriately."

Meanwhile, House members have targeted almost $700-million for cuts in education, although they hope to spare school districts the pain of layoffs and bigger class sizes, said Education Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Evelyn Lynn.

"Everyone's taking a difficult hit. This was not an easy task," said Lynn, R-Ormond Beach.

Dollars that go directly into the classrooms were largely spared, but supporting programs like reading grants and some scholarship funds were shaved and in some cases eliminated.

Also in the House, state agencies proposed massive cuts for programs that help the poor and elderly.

The Department of Elder Affairs proposed closing 13 Memory Disorder Clinics, including one at the University of South Florida, that help people who have Alzheimer's disease. Cutting the clinics, some of which opened in the late 1970s, would save the state $2.7-million.

"I can't believe we're even thinking about closing these," said Rep. Irving Slosberg, a Boca Raton Democrat.

Lawmakers also considered a plan to eliminate VisionQuest, a statewide program that provides eyesight screening and glasses to poor children at school. Cutting the program would save $500,000 this year and $1-million in 2002-2003. The poor children would have to get their eyes checked at already stretched county health departments and get glasses donated by charity, officials told state lawmakers.

Also on the block: a free dental clinic at the University of Florida, state funding for special centers that treat patients with Parkinson's disease, and longtime research centers at USF, the University of Miami and the University of South Florida that advise physicians on birth defects.

Some lawmakers said they were especially wary of cutting programs like prenatal care that can prevent later health problems. "I'm concerned it will fill up our emergency rooms if we take away prevention," said Rep. Nan Rich, a Democrat from Weston.

"If we're looking at hospitals to take some of these things on, I can tell you that they can't,' said Rep. Carole Green, a Republican from Fort Myers.

Members of the House Criminal Justice Committee winced at the depth of the cuts they are considering.

"I just laid off 3,000 people, so my gut is burning," Rep. Matt Meadows, D-Lauderhill, said as he and other Democrats sat down for a quick caucus Wednesday.

Some probation and court corrections officers are among those who could find themselves in the unemployement line. Drug treatment programs for prisoners and probationers are on the cutting block, as are some educational programs.

Lawmakers are cutting this year's budget with an eye toward next year's, which is expected to require even deeper cuts in programs. And it won't stop there.

"This is essentially a three-year problem," said Ed Montanaro, director of the Legislature's Office of Economic and Demographic Research.

-- Times staff writer Lucy Morgan and researcher Deirdre Morrow contributed to this report.

Proposed public school cuts

Citrus County: $3,370,508

Hernando County: $3,671,582

Hillsborough County: $37,377,720

Pasco County: $11,240,758

Pinellas County: $25,595,198

-- Source: House committee proposal

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk