The fiscal impact to higher education still stands in the way of Florida legislators reaching a deal on a budget that should top $70 billion.
The states budget chiefs from the House and Senate will continue Monday negotiating the difference out of the fiscal plan. Efforts intensified Friday when unsettled issues were bumped up to Senate Budget Chairman J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, and House Appropriations Chairwoman Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring.
While both chambers have agreed to Gov. Rick Scotts request to increase public school funding by $1 billion, the lawmakers must still settle on an overall spending plan for the Pre-K-12 programs and how it impacts the states universities needed to help balance the states budget.
We want to make sure we dont ask the universities to go so low in their balance, with the methodology, that they have real serious problems, said Alexander.
Also, Alexander must convince House members to support his Senate-backed effort to make University of South Florida-Polytechnic in Lakeland into the 12th state university.
If lawmakers want to complete the budget on time, they have until Tuesday to hammer out differences in the mostly identical funding packages that have been put together by the separate chambers.
The state Constitution requires a 72-hour waiting period between completion of the final fiscal plan and the time when members of both chambers vote on the package.
Now they must determine how the cuts to the universities will be divided among the schools.
The House had agreed to consider the Senates proposed use of $300 million from undesignated reserves to be drawn out of the 11 state universities in order to advance the budget conferencing.
The Senate considers the use of the nonrecurring money a near non-negotiable position as it returns reserves close to where they stood three years ago without affecting programs.
The House was looking more to draw $100 million from the undesignated funds and use $200 million from recurring academic programs for the university cuts, hoping to save money beyond a single year.
Without the higher education cuts, Alexander said, other budget areas will be looking at trouble.
The budget wont be the only item on the minds of lawmakers this week. Action is still pending on decreasing the number of policies in Citizens Property Insurance, reducing fraud in what is supposed to be the low-cost personal injury protection auto insurance, and the state Supreme Court ruling on redistricting.
Plus, a decision on the state pensions lurks from Leon County Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford -- who has ruled against the states effort to bid out the contract of state prisons last year by including the plan as a proviso in the budget -- on Floridas decision to require state employees to contribute 3 percent of their pay toward the pension program.
Lawmakers have been meeting since Tuesday to create a single budget from the fiscal plans each chamber crafted.
On Sunday, language was removed from the criminal justice bill that Democratic Minority Leader Nan Rich, R-Sunrise, said could have reignited the debate to place prison privatization into the budget by allowing the Department of Corrections to outsource facilities.
Also, because of the expected infusion of university reserves, lawmakers were able to reduce the amount hospitals would have been cut, from 7.5 percent to 5.64 percent. Hospitals in rural areas and children's hospitals would not face the rate cut.
On Saturday, the negotiators agreed to keep Jefferson Correctional Institutional open east of Tallahassee. The closing would have saved $10.3 million and Alexander said a deal had been reached between both chambers and Gov. Rick Scott to keep money for the prison in the budget.
The proposed closing, part of the state Department of Corrections effort to reduce space and costs due to a declining number of inmates statewide, caused an uproar in Jefferson County, where the prison employs 177 and is one of the economic engines of the community.
At the same time, budget negotiators declined to do the same for the womens prison in Hillsborough County that had survived a cut in the House earlier in the week.
They also agreed to give Gov. Rick Scott up to $61 million to use at his discretion to attract and maintain businesses in Florida. Another $25 million could be available through the Legislative Budget Commission for similar efforts.
He has made good arguments that, in his effort to sell our state and bring quality employers in here, he needed to be able to make commitments faster, Alexander told reporters after the Saturday meeting.
Also, $2 million was directed in the transportation fund for the Port of Pensacola.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
