State: State cuts $1-billion

State cuts $1-billion

The legislation, which capped an eight-day special session, now goes to Gov. Jeb Bush for his approval.

By ALISA ULFERTS

TALLAHASSEE -- Teens won't learn as much about the perils of smoking. Juvenile probation officers will have to monitor more kids. County school districts and health departments must get by with less help from the state.

In all, lawmakers approved more than $1-billion in budget cuts Thursday, capping an eight-day special session called to repair a budget damaged by terrorism and a slowing economy. The cuts now go to Gov. Jeb Bush for his signature.

Bush called the budget "a balanced approach" and praised lawmakers for protecting the state's vulnerable residents.

"We're taking care of the people who truly need the help of government during tough times, and I'm proud of that," Bush said during a news conference Thursday.

Both chambers approved the bill, holding closely to party lines, with the House voting 80-39 and the Senate 26-14.

The budget bill marked the second time lawmakers have tried to plug the deficit in the $48-billion budget. The first special session crashed six weeks ago when House Speaker Tom Feeney and Senate President John McKay failed to agree on a controversial tax cut.

Bush had his nose bloodied on editorial pages after the first session failed.

He stepped in before the second started and brokered a deal between the two men to delay the tax cut for 18 months, with an eye toward repealing the tax entirely once the economy has recovered. In return, both Feeney and McKay on Thursday praised Bush, who faces re-election next year.

But it wasn't all roses at the Capitol on Thursday. Lawmakers skipped the usual tradition of ending a legislative session with a hanky drop because of the somber effect the cuts will have on people throughout the state.

"This is not something any of us should be celebrating," McKay said. "Some folks will be negatively affected."

State juvenile probation officers, who now handle 46 cases each on average, will watch their caseloads grow to 51. Some treatment centers will stay shuttered -- "mothballed" in the words of Sen. Anna Cowin, R-Leesburg -- because of cuts in services. On a 12-month basis, services to treat delinquent teens have been cut 15 percent.

Cowin, head of the Senate budget subcommittee for public safety, defended the cuts.

"We did a surgical cut based on priorities," Cowin said.

Lawmakers slashed the per-pupil funding they give local school districts by 2.5 percent or $309-million, which averages out to $125 less per student. Combined with other cuts in grants programs and administration, total public school cuts topped $430-million.

At least one area cut could be restored: mentoring programs for youth. Bush, who started a mentoring initiative among state workers, said he may use his line-item veto to restore funding for some of those programs.

That likely won't be enough to appease Democratic senators, who said the cuts will hurt schoolchildren and teachers most. They argued in favor of greater use of budget reserves or closing of tax loopholes instead of spending cuts. But they lacked the votes to prevail.

"We're cutting at the bone," said Sen. Les Miller, D-Tampa. "This is really going to hurt our school districts."

Republicans bristled at accusations they were harming the state's schoolchildren. McKay said lawmakers used a "sharp knife" to cut the budget rather than a "meat ax," and other legislators said they weighed every other option before cutting any program.

"We tried to do our part in a way that hurt students the least," said Rep. Evelyn Lynn, the Ormond Beach Republican in charge of school spending for the House. She reminded fellow lawmakers that even with the cuts in education, the state still will spend more this year than it did last.

"You may call it a cut; in actuality there is still an increase over last year," Lynn said.

That was a mantra repeated by Republicans throughout the day Thursday, from Bush at a news conference to junior representatives on the House floor. Bush referred Thursday to the "downward adjustment" in the budget that lawmakers made, and other legislators referred to the cuts as a reduction in the state budget's rate of growth.

But Democrats were not buying that argument, not for education or state health programs for the poor.

"If you are diabetic and you aren't going to get your insulin ... if you have a heart condition and aren't going to get your Coumadin; there's nobody (among those people) who's going to say, "Oh, the budget has actually increased,' " said House Democratic leader Lois Frankel, also a candidate for governor.

Among the programs lawmakers trimmed was prescription drug assistance, although the House social services chief, Rep. Sandy Murman, R-Tampa, said that money had been unused.

In all, lawmakers cut $146-million set aside for health care and social services for the poor and disabled. They stalled some of those cuts until July 1, but after that only pregnant women and children will qualify for the state's Medically Needy program, which helps people who have exhausted their own medical insurance.

Lawmakers also cut a program providing eyeglasses, dental care and hearing aids for the poor but delayed those cuts till July 1.

So what do these cuts do to next year's budget, which lawmakers will begin to craft when they return to the Capitol in January? Frankel said she thinks the worst has passed.

"I don't believe that they would ever dare go into an election year taking more cuts," Frankel said.

"That's why we're taking the hit now."

But Republican members said they made the tough choices that need to be made in the face of dwindling state finances.

"We did the best we could," said Rep. Carlos Lacasa, a Miami Republican and chief budget negotiator for the House.

-- Times staff writer Steve Bousquet and researcher Deirdre Morrow contributed to this report.