Perspective: Legislative calculations

Despite the prospect of having to make brutal cuts to deal with the state's budget deficit, some of our leaders inTallahassee strangely continue to cling to other priorities.

Florida's economic emergency has produced a truly memorable specimen of bureaucratic gobbledygook. Found last week within a package of budget-reduction options, it cautioned legislators that a certain cut "could negatively affect birth outcomes."

In human language: more dead babies.

That's what they know would happen if they spend less on prenatal care for women at the edge of poverty.

That particular cut came off the table, but the program is on life support until the end of the year only. Dozens of cuts that remain under consideration, as the Legislature prepares for the special session Monday, are nearly as appalling.

One would save $31-million by denying dental, vision and hearing care to adult Medicaid clients. Don't consider that a net gain, the program office warned, as emergency rooms would likely see more people with agonizing toothaches.

Committees propose to postpone the nursing home staff improvements that were the pretext last spring for protecting nursing homes from lawsuits for negligent care.

Meanwhile, House budgeteers have targeted 2,800 jobs in the criminal justice system. As most of them are devoted to keeping young people out of prison, it means more of them going to prison later. But, of course, legislators yet to be elected would have to pay the bill for that. Term limits mean never having to say you're sorry.

The House leadership proposed to cut a staggering $548-million from the public schools. Counties could make up all but $102-million of that by diverting capital outlay money to pay teachers. But that would be the political equivalent of eating seed corn, as it would further postpone relief from overcrowded classrooms.

With such brutal expediencies on the table, it is instructive how some people cling to other priorities. House Speaker Tom Feeney still won't consider postponing or altering a pending tax cut for prosperous investors. Gov. Jeb Bush insists that people now in prison, even for nonviolent offenses, continue to serve at least 85 percent of their time.

Such consistencies, in the face of a $1.3-billion deficit, are not merely foolish; they are bizarre. Strangely, no one seems to have thought of asking legislators to pay toward their health insurance as even the lowest-paid employee must.

Not all choices need be bad. Lawmakers could turn adversity to advantage by enacting certain well-known economies that have languished for years because of special-interest influence.

For example, their own auditors have repeatedly pointed to $56-million that could be gained by realistically fining overweight trucks, as other states do, and to $45-million that could be saved by being slightly less generous to property owners (and their lawyers) in right-of-way condemnation. A Florida property owner currently risks nothing by holding out for the sun, moon and stars.

Meanwhile, Medicaid fraud flourishes because lobbies have blocked recognized, reasonable safeguards that wouldn't cost honest providers a single dime.

Though it has yet to find official sponsors, there is a proposal to let public employees save their jobs by taking voluntary furloughs, a day at a time, for which they would be rewarded by holding harmless their pensions and benefits. It's worth considering as an alternative to eliminating those jobs forever, as some of Tallahassee's fiscal fascists undoubtedly would prefer. Rep. Lois Frankel, the House Democratic leader and a candidate for governor, has produced a package of thoughtful proposals keyed to minimizing harm to children, seniors and others dependent on the state. Among the key points: Limit education cuts to $200-million with maximum flexibility to colleges and school boards in how to spend what's left. Postpone the FCAT boondoggle and related school testing. Borrow $450-million from the state's Budget Stabilization Fund (which was created precisely for such an emergency) with a concrete plan to pay it back.

That plan involves the intangibles tax, but with some inventive and appealing new wrinkles. Instead of postponing this year's tax cut, which removes some 700,000 smaller investors from the rolls, Frankel would let them go and double the rate -- now $1 per $1,000 in taxable assets -- for the wealthier ones who remain. The receipts would be earmarked to repaying the budget stabilization fund. When the fund was replenished to equal 10 percent of the previous year's tax collections (a constitutional requirement), the intangibles tax would be suspended entirely. Thereafter, it would be reimposed only to repay future borrowings from the emergency fund. This is a constructive idea.

Before Feeney and Bush reject it out of hand, it would behoove them to consider certain evidence that their priorities are not the public's. A voter poll commissioned by the Florida Education Association and the United Teachers of Dade found that twice as many would support as oppose a one-year, half-cent increase in the sales tax to protect programs "that benefit children, the public schools and senior citizens." The questions were fairly worded, and the poll was conducted by a reputable concern. Two weeks ago, Volusia County voters approved a half-cent increase to build schools.

Florida is not broke, but the state government does have a severe cash flow crisis. As we've noted before, it has a leadership deficit that is more endemic. The special session can do much to erase that deficit. Or it can make it worse.

Sixteen-million Floridians wait to learn how well or how poorly their representatives will serve them.

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