Despite efforts in Tallahassee to portray last week's scaled-down budget in the best possible light, the cuts will hurt, leaving unmet many of the state's needs.

That great swooshing sound in Tallahassee the other day wasn't caused by the legislators hurrying home. It came from the spin-doctoring that sought to put a palatable political face on bad news: more than $1-billion in mostly hurtful budget cuts.

Gov. Jeb Bush, for example, exulted that the state will still spend more this year than last. But he neglected to mention that even the original budget failed to address a myriad of needs, especially in the schools, which have yet to recover fully from the last recession.

The governor boasted of earmarking $5,327 per student compared to $5,296 last year. That grand increase is a pitiful $31 per student -- less than 1 percent -- which does not keep pace with even the recent modest rate of inflation, let alone help to uncrowd classrooms. And to get that much, the budget-spinners count local money that was previously set aside for pensions. Less is not more.

There is no spinning away the $146-million in cuts to health care and social services for the poor and disabled. After July 1, only pregnant women and children will remain in the Medically Needy program. Thousands of adult Medicaid beneficiaries will lose pharmaceutical, dental, vision and hearing services. That sum understates the real harm to them, and to their health care providers, because the state will be losing an even larger amount of federal money on account of its inability or unwillingness to match it.

The Legislature deserves some credit for trying to make the best of what it had -- in particular, for saving prenatal care for poor working women. But that shouldn't have had to come at the expense of others.

The Budget Stabilization Fund remains untapped. So do dozens of glaring tax exemptions. The governor and Legislature managed only to defer the latest cut in the intangibles tax, which had been imprudently enacted last spring.

As the curtain falls on this sad act, it rises on another that has the potential for historic heroism and progress. On adjournment, Senate President John McKay summoned Republican senators to a luncheon caucus on the tax reform campaign that he will formally propose Dec. 17. Though it would be revenue-neutral at the beginning, it would be significantly more in synch with Florida's economy than the present tax base, which is overly sensitive to fluctuations in tourism.

McKay took with him a ringing endorsement from the Democratic minority, whose leader, Tom Rossin, vowed on the Senate floor "to stay here through August next year" if that's what it takes to pass the bill.

Whatever it takes, nothing could be more important.

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