Rick Scott’s budget proposal has only been available to the public for three days, but it’s already caused some state legislators’ blood pressure to rise and Florida residents’ jaws to drop.
Scott’s $65.8 billion spending proposal for the 2011-2012 fiscal year represents a $4.6 billion cut to the state budget. The governor’s recommendations would slash billions from state spending and taxes and would eliminate about 8,000 state government jobs.
He suggested cutting $3.3 billion from education. The amount of money spent per student would drop by $703, a 10 percent drop from the current rate of $6,843.51.
Scott hopes to reduce that cut to only $300 per student through money saved by his recommended changes to pension funds and a one-time federal government offering of nonstimulus funds that would open local school money up for other uses.
Albert Matheny, a professor of political science at UF, said in an e-mail interview that cutting education spending takes away residents’ abilities to think and work their way out of the country’s economic crisis.
“It’s very clear to me that defunding education is all about attempting to create a docile and desperate workforce, willing to work harder and harder for less and less,” he said. “What Gov. Scott is seeking, in the end, is to turn Florida into a Third World state with a desperately poor, frightened and undereducated working population and a wealthy elite.”
Scott also wants to cut the state’s work force by 7 percent, or 8,645 employee positions. About 2,000 of those jobs are currently vacant.
“What has kept us afloat over the last few years is, in fact, government spending on the economy,”Matheny said. “So reducing government actually attacks the very entity that has forestalled an even worse economic situation brought on by the tax-cutting policies of Gov. Scott’s predecessors.”
Scott’s proposal must be approved by the state legislature in the spring. Matheny does not expect it to pass, nor does UF College Democrats President Stacy Eichner.
“When lawmakers look back at their constituents they will see the overwhelming disapproval of this proposed budget,” Eichner said in an e-mail interview. “Compromises will need to be made if Gov. Scott wants to move forward.”
Eichner said an unwillingness to compromise by the governor may hurt his relationship with some state Republicans.
Daniel Smith, a UF political science professor, expects state legislators to feel pressure from their constituencies to oppose at least some parts of the budget proposal, particularly cuts to education and social welfare programs.
“Legislators will be feeling the heat if they follow the recommendations of Gov. Scott for the budget,” he said. “I suspect they won’t as much.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Proposed Cuts
Education
$3.3 billion
Corporate income tax
$1.4 billion
Property tax
$1.4 billion
Community Affairs
$668.4 million
Transportation
$441.5 million
Children and Family Services
$178.5 million
Agency for persons with disabilities
$173.8 million
Health
$170.8 million
Environmental Protection
$148.5 million
