Despite those remarks, Wilson voted for the budget, which passed the Senate, 32-8, as seven of the 14 Democrats broke their own caucus position to vote no. Republican Sen. Ronda Storms of Valrico also opposed the budget.

''It is a mistake to fund our budget with gambling money,'' Storms said.

The House approved the budget on a 75-43 vote, with all Republicans voting yes and all Democrats voting no.

In a symbolic gesture, legislators cut their own salaries 7 percent. But that continues a 5 percent cut from the current year, making the new cut 2 percent of their current pay. They also steered savings from state workers' pay cuts into the state's health insurance program so that rank-and-file workers won't have to pay higher premiums.

Legislators refused to eliminate free health insurance coverage that they and 26,000 select state workers receive at a cost to taxpayers of about $44 million a year.

For weeks, Republicans have praised a budget that they say holds education funding harmless with a small increase in per-student spending.

''We increased education spending in a year when we had to cut the budget by billions of dollars,'' said Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami. ``I'm going to be proud.''

While the $6,873 per-student spending for next year is about $28 higher than the current budget, it only looks like an increase because of the cut the governor imposed last June, reducing current-year spending from $6,997.

Technically this new budget is an increase, but that masks a recent downward trend in public school spending, which peaked at $7,126 per pupil in 2007-08.

Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com

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