Florida Budget: Surplus or Deep Holes to Fill?
Posted Feb 1, 2016 07:30 am | Public News Service
TALLAHASSEE,
FL - It's the $1 billion question: what to do with the
excess revenue generated as the state's economy
continues to recover?
Gov. Rick Scott is calling it a surplus and asking for nearly $1 billion in tax cuts, with the state House last week rolling out a proposal that aimed much of that cut toward corporations.
Rich Templin, legislative and political director of the
Florida AFL-CIO, says his union does not feel there's a
windfall to be given away.
"You can only claim that you have a surplus when all of
your needs have been met," he points out. "We are seeing
across the board, across the state, that our most basic
needs are not being met when it comes to some of the
most critical social service spending that any state
needs to do. "
Templin adds that Florida consistently ranks at or near
the bottom of the nation when it comes to education
funding, and has one of the highest percentages of
uninsured children.
The House is expected to vote on the tax cut package
this week.
According
to an analysis from the Florida Center for Fiscal and
Economic Policy, in 2014 the state had the lowest tax
collected per person in the nation, as well as one of
the lowest payrolls for state government employees.
Executive director Karen Woodall says when it comes to
state services, you often get what you pay for.
"Every institution that the state is responsible for,
basically, is failing," she maintains. "Our child
welfare system, our corrections system, our juvenile
justice system, our mental institutions."
While many Republican lawmakers say their polling
suggests Floridians are in favor of more tax cuts,
Templin argues that citizens are not hearing the whole
story.
"When you point out that most of these tax cuts are
going to big corporations, and the expense is our kids'
schools, our children's health care, our environment,
and other aspects of the state, they would rather have
those services," he stresses.
The Senate has yet to offer up its own tax cut package,
but analysts expect it will suggest rolling back
property taxes instead of endorsing some of the business
tax cuts proposed by the House.
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