FLORIDA LEGISLATURE

Belt-tightening session comes to an end

It wasn't pretty, but Florida lawmakers managed to approve a tight budget and health insurance plans for autistic kids and the working poor.

BY MARC CAPUTO, MARY ELLEN KLAS AND GARY FINEOUT

mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com

But with a record $4 billion in budget cuts and a worsening economy ahead, they had to abandon top priorities they had no cash for -- from a proposed sales-tax holiday to a massive Central Florida commuter rail line.

Public education suffered the biggest cut ever: $2.3 billion, though legislators redirected more money to private schools through vouchers. Virtually everything but prison-building got nipped, tucked or whacked on the Capitol's last-day legislative killing floor.

''There are corpses strewn about the Capitol,'' said Fort Lauderdale Rep. Jack Seiler. ``This year there is no money to grease the wheels.''

Legislators managed a few big lifts by passing:

• An alternative-energy package that calls for ''greener'' buildings and more ethanol;

• A continued rate freeze for Citizens Property Insurance customers and a bill limiting insurance adjustor fees;

• A renewal of a land-buying program; and

• New money for replumbing the Everglades.

But the bipartisan health-insurance plan for 3.8 million uninsured Floridians and a dramatic last-minute decision by the House to pass the autism coverage bill took center stage. They allowed the Legislature and Gov. Charlie Crist to put an exclamation point on an otherwise-subdued session punctuated by election-year debates over abortion, evolution and guns.

Crist's plan to offer stripped-down health insurance plans for as little as $150 monthly was blended with Speaker Marco Rubio's proposal to set up a public-private corporation to help small businesses figure out what plans to offer employees.

''Some great things happened today. Historic things happened today,'' said Crist, singling out the health and autism bills while giving passing mention to the ``very challenging times.''

TAX HOLIDAY NIXED

The times are probably going to get worse. State senators made a last-minute decision to cancel a weeklong sales-tax holiday for back-to-school clothing because a $100 million drop in April's sales tax collections means tax revenue is declining more quickly than expected.

So lawmakers granted Crist extraordinary power to shift around money in the proposed $66.2 billion budget in case of shortages. A legislative committee would sign off on the shifts, sparing the full Legislature from having to convene a special budget-cutting session during an election year.

The Republican-controlled chambers raised a passel of fees -- $200 million in all -- that will increase college tuition 6 percent, raise $120 million for court fees and documents, increase boat registrations as much as $67 and increase the cost of renewing a suspended driver license by $12.50.

But Democrats called for more. They proposed a $1-per-pack cigarette tax increase to raise about $1 billion and wanted to close corporate tax ''loopholes.'' But Republicans proudly defeated them, saying they couldn't impose higher taxes on a public already strapped by the sagging economy.

Democrats, especially in the more-partisan House, warned that the budget will make the economy even worse because it will cut off 700 state jobs and lead to potentially thousands of job cuts in nursing homes and homes for the disabled.

Also on the horizon: potential troubles for the court system.

Public defenders say their spending has been cut so much they'll have to turn more cases over to private lawyers, at a higher cost.

The Legislature also cut $100 million from the Department of Children & Families.

''The outlook is not very rosy,'' DCF chief Bob Butterworth said.

``Obviously, when the economy goes down, demand for our services grows. Food stamps are up 15 percent now. There will be more domestic violence, more child abuse, more people who are desperate and unfortunately will commit more crimes.''

And because the crime rate is increasing, lawmakers said, they need to build three new prisons at a cost of $305 million.

They also passed laws cracking down on indoor-marijuana growing and wild motorcycle riding.

SESSION WINNERS

The black caucus walked away with a few wins, starting with an official apology from the state Legislature for Florida's role in slavery. They removed racially offensive langauge from Florida's state song, Old Folks at Home, and approved an alternative state anthem.

Lawmakers also established a method to compensate the wrongly convicted and those who have been harmed by government.

''I think we have a lot to be proud of,'' said House Speaker Marco Rubio. ``This was by far one of the most difficult budgets in the history of the state. . . . The budget was balanced without raising taxes, without expanding gambling -- which was a priority of the House.''

Rubio's priority to overhaul the curriculum in public schools passed, as did a measure to de-emphasize the high-stakes FCAT exam.

There were a few bright spots for South Florida: Miami Children's Hospital suffered almost no cuts, and Jackson Memorial Hospital received a bonus $20 million so that its bottom-line cut was only $6 million.

But if anything, the affordable health insurance package could yield some of the biggest results for Miami-Dade, where more than 20 percent of all the uninsured in Florida live.

Florida has the nation's third-highest rate of uninsured, 20 percent, and a quarter of Miami-Dade's population lacks coverage.

HEALTH INSURANCE

The health-insurance legislation passed out of the House with just one nay vote, a marked turnaround from two weeks ago, when raw partisanship gripped the House and led Democrats to use a rare parliamentary procedure to grind proceedings to a near-halt for more than 16 hours.

''We had a rough go here and there, but at the end of the day we all left there with things that we wanted,'' Rubio said.

``What we wanted is things for the people of Florida.''