TALLAHASSEE -- Acknowledging the state's challenging fiscal crisis, Florida legislators voted in two new Republican leaders for the next two-year term on Tuesday.

Florida's first Cuban-American House speaker, Marco Rubio of Miami, handed over the reins of the Florida House to his successor, Destin businessman Ray Sansom. Sansom has been the chamber's budget chief for the past two years.

Sansom thanked Rubio for letting him chair the budget ``in the worst economy Florida's ever faced. I mean that. Thanks.''

In the Senate, North Palm Beach Sen. Jeff Atwater took the helm after Sen. Jim King, a former Senate president himself, noted the tough times when he formally nominated him and joked Atwater still had time to refuse the job.

''Sen. Atwater, are you sure you want to do this? Seriously,'' King said. ``This year, regardless of the past performances, will go down as the most challenging and difficult for presiding officers and budget writers.''

The Florida budget is bleeding money, the state's economy is shedding jobs in record numbers and, by Friday, lawmakers will get a new economic forecast from state economists that will spell out how far the state's revenues are expected to drop below expectations.

Revenues have already dipped more than $600 million below what economists forecasted last spring when legislators wrote the state budget, and early predictions are they will drop at least another $1 billion.

Sansom and Atwater must decide soon if there is enough money to borrow from unspent trust fund accounts to stave off a special budget-cutting session until lawmakers return for the regular session in March. If the shortfall is too deep, they must call a special session and begin cutting the budget beyond the 4 percent agencies have been told by the governor to hold back.

''My preference is not for a special session,'' Sansom said Monday. As the former chairman of the House budget committee, he said there is $1.7 billion in trust fund reserves that can be tapped temporarily as long as all agencies follow the governor's orders and also cut their own budgets 4 percent this year.

''Special sessions cost money,'' he said. ``We're going to hold tight with what I hope we can do this current fiscal year.''

Sansom urged members to think about how they will be judged by Florida voters in two years when they're up for election again. He urged them to ''take the approach that we're just a little underqualified every day,'' to ''dig in and problem solve'' and to be smart. He repeated his call to ``stay grounded, to stay connected and to avoid distractions.''

''Tallahassee is not our home,'' he said. ``Our homes are the districts that sent us here. The answers are not found on the four walls of this chamber.''

Rep. Larry Cretul, who was named the chamber's speaker pro tempore, handed Sansom a giant gavel to deal with ''big issues.'' He said Sansom will be ''a steady hand,'' and a proud conservative who ``knows when to say yes and, most importantly for a leader, when to say no.''

Meanwhile, Democrats say it is foolish to wait, warning that by allowing agencies to make the cuts, there is nothing protecting the programs and people who are most at risk of being harmed by harsh cuts.

'Florida should not become the 21st century version of Dickens' 19th century London,'' Sen. Al Lawson of Tallahassee warned as he was nominated to be the Senate's incoming Democratic leader. He is among those calling for a special session and vowed to protect children and the elderly from the most severe cuts because he considers them society's weakest links.

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