TALLAHASSEE ? As Gov. Charlie Crist begins working on the state?s spending plan, he?s asking agencies to include 10 percent cuts in their budget proposals.
Crist is hoping that?s not required when he presents his version of the budget in January, but his department officials have painted what it would look like if it were.
The picture calls for harsh measures.
? State prisoners who lost ?gain time? for bad behavior could get it back, to hasten their release from bulging prisons. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement?s career-criminal unit and alcohol testing services could get the ax. In the scenario, two prisons could be taken off line.
? Hundreds of state jobs will be at risk as Crist and state legislators try to stretch stagnant state revenue collections to cover rising costs and population needs in a Florida budget that this year was trimmed by about $6 billion, to about $66 billion. Already, since July, the state?s collections are $1.4 billion below that level and the outlook remains grim.
? Cutting the state budget by 10 percent would mean fewer driver?s license offices, with longer lines.
? State aid to education, including compliance with the class-size constitutional requirement and matching money in the federal free-lunch program, would be in jeopardy. And consumers calling the Public Service Commission?s complaint line, which helped 39,000 Floridians with utility complaints last year, would get no answer.
? Department of Corrections Secretary Walt McNeil said the prison system?s $2.2 billion budget needs to increase by about $300 million. But he complied with the edict for a theoretical cut of 10 percent, which he said would mean ?taking two prisons off line? and having no room for about 4,800 inmates.
? The former Tallahassee police chief said 476 jobs in probation would be lost. Prisoners would still do the constitutionally required 85 percent of their sentences but some who lost ?gain time? could get it restored, to ease crowding.
? Department of Health programs combating AIDS, diabetes and smoking would be scaled back.
? The Florida Parole Commission, which took a 20 percent operating cut in this fiscal year, asked to be ?held harmless? next year. But if 10 percent must go, the commission offered up 16 positions and $803,512 in clemency investigations ? warning it would increase a backlog.
? The FDLE, which would lose $17.5 million and 201 job slots in a 10 percent budget cut, said such a reduction would mean closing field offices in Marianna, Lakeland, St. Augustine, Fort Pierce, Broward County, Live Oak, Brooksville, Sebring, Melbourne, Key West, Gainesville, Sarasota and West Palm Beach.
? Investigative and forensic services for city and county agencies would be cut, along with the witness-protection program, if a full 10 percent was lopped from its budget.
? The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles put on the chopping block several driver?s license offices, along with its Florida Licensing on Wheels mobile services.
http://news-press.com/article/20081016/NEWS01/81015098
