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Budget cuts will spare solicitor general after all
By STEVE BOUSQUET
© St. Petersburg Times,
published November 27, 2001
TALLAHASSEE -- Even as the ax falls throughout Florida government, one of the state's best-paid lawyers will keep his job after all.
One month after legislators eliminated Tom Warner's job in the Attorney General's Office, a Senate committee restored it Monday on the eve of a two-week session called to cut $1.3-billion from the budget.
House Speaker Tom Feeney apologized for cutting Warner's job at the first special session last month and vowed to "fix that."
Abolishing the post looked pretty suspicious to Warner and to his boss, Attorney General Bob Butterworth, because Warner is seeking the Republican nomination for attorney general. So is Sen. Locke Burt, R-Ormond Beach, who serves on the Senate committee that recommended abolishing the job in the first place.
Burt proposed saving the jobs of Warner and an assistant, and Burt said afterward that eliminating Warner's job was never his idea, though he noted that the solicitor general's position cannot be found in the lawbooks.
"You guys tried to blame it on me, but it wasn't. We had to make some tough cuts," Burt explained. "In the immortal words of Sonny and Cher, "It ain't me, babe.' "
Warner, 53, a former House member from Palm Beach County, was appointed Florida's first solicitor general two years ago. He acts as the state's chief appellate lawyer, intervening in major cases that have implications for state policy.
Warner is paid $154,200 a year. Butterworth's office said half is paid by the state and half by an endowed chair at Florida State University.
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