State: Schools escape budget cleaver

TALLAHASSEE -- Teachers might have to give up salary increases next year. Their classes could get a little bigger soon. And forget about traveling to conferences.

Despite all that, many educators are thrilled -- at least for now.

When the Florida House went along with the Senate's version of the budget cuts this week, they adopted the plan that most educators were rooting for.

"We've said all along, if we can keep it below 2 percent, we can live with it," said Wayne Blanton, director of the Florida School Boards Association. "I don't think we'll see layoffs, but you won't see a lot of hiring either. Sad to say, this is pretty good news."

Educators were bracing for cuts as big as 5 percent. The House budget was in the 3.5 percent range. The Senate was in the 1 percent range. So if the budget holds up, educators won't face the budget slashing they feared.

Now budget officers are facing a new problem: If the economy doesn't recover soon, they will face even deeper cuts, and teachers and parents might get skeptical of the gloom and doom predictions.

"Will people think we're crying wolf?" asked Lansing Johansen, chief financial officer for the Pinellas County schools. "We're doing the right things right now; we're enforcing the hiring freeze, which is not making people happy. But we told them it might be a really bad cut and it wasn't that bad.

"I kind of wonder what's around the corner," Johansen said.

"My question is, what do we do if the state faces (cuts of) a billion-six in July?" said Pasco superintendent John Long. It was a $1.3-billion budget shortfall that forced Gov. Jeb Bush to call lawmakers for a special session.

The cut-now-or-cut-later dilemma is at the heart of the disagreement between the House and Senate. House members proposed deeper cuts, arguing that they were painful but necessary. Rep. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, went so far as to describe the Senate cuts as "candy" and the House cuts as "health food."

(Also central to the disagreement is that the House is unwilling to free up some money by repealing or deferring a cut in the intangibles tax.)

House Speaker Tom Feeney said Friday that the budget now on the table is far from a complete fix.

"If the economy doesn't come back, we'll be back (for more budget cutting) saying, "I told you so,' " Feeney said.

Already, there is disagreement among educators as to how bad finances are.

"You know what, they are crying wolf," said Jade Moore, executive director of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association. "It might have been 5 percent, but it turned out to be a 1 percent cut. Any school district that doesn't hold back 1 to 2 1/2 percent in its reserves is irresponsible."

Hillsborough school superintendent Earl Lennard said his district is going to continue with the budget trimming measures already in place, such as a hiring freeze, and hope for the best.

"We really don't know how bad it's going to be in the near future," Lennard said.

Maureen Dinnen, president of the Florida Education Association, said it's odd how little joy there is among educators who appear to have gotten much of what they wanted out of the special session. They wanted the smallest cuts, and they wanted flexibility in how to make those cuts.

"You can't really be unhappy that we're not looking at a 5 percent cut," Dinnen said. "I just hope people are ready for it if things get worse. We've had some success, but there's no promises down the road."

In preparation for the cuts, districts have already taken steps by limiting travel and freezing hiring. Districts are likely to get the thing they most hoped for: flexibility. That means state lawmakers won't micromanage the cuts. But it leaves school districts to choose between bad and worse choices.

"We'd like to be the ones choosing between the lesser of evils," said Jerry Runkle, associate superintendent of finance and management information systems for Pinellas County schools.

The new budget would leave school districts with significant cuts to make. Pinellas County is looking at a $5.3-million cut; Hillsborough, a cut of about $9-million; Pasco, $2.5-million; Hernando, $892,900; and Citrus, $807,000.

Hillsborough school officials had been preparing for $36-million to $50-million in cuts. So when they learned the shortfall would be about $9-million, they were greatly relieved.

"We will not have to cut as deeply now," said Lennard. "Any cut will hurt. But the greater the cut, the more the pain. It is certainly gratifying that our legislators are working very hard, as much as possible, to make sure schools were not hurt."

The district began a hiring freeze at the beginning of October and assembled a budget committee that pinpointed 26 possible cuts, including eliminating summer schools and shaving all employee salaries by 1 percent.

On Friday, Lennard said some cuts will be necessary, but he was unsure what they would be until the first of November.

"I think we're going to have to wait until the process is over with," he said.

The agreement between the House and Senate was welcome news to Yvonne Lyons, director of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association.

"It's a great sigh of relief," she said. "We just expected and feared the worst. They were bouncing around figures like $37-million to $50-million. That would have just killed us in this district. Nine-million is a lot better than $37-million. It makes me feel better. I don't know why I should be so happy over this kind of cut, but I am."

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk