Florida TaxWatch Releases Ideas to Save Florida $4 Billion

At the Capitol on Wednesday, Florida TaxWatch released 125 recommendations to cut around $4 billion from the state budget -- days after the expected budget shortfall of $3-to-$3.5 billion was announced for the next fiscal year.

Dominic Calabro, president and CEO of Florida TaxWatch, presented the report containing the recommendations to incoming Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll who accept it on behalf of incoming Gov. Rick Scott. More than 40 Floridians from the private sector, higher education and government worked six months on the report.

We now know that the budget deficit will likely exceed $3-to-$3.5 billionand the state will owe billions more to the federal government through the unemployment compensation fund, said Calabro. Now, more than ever, recommendations like these to save taxpayer dollars and contain costs are vital.

Calabro stressed that the report transcended politics, calling it bipartisan and nonpartisan. Underscoring the point, Republicans like Carroll, Rep. Will Weatherford of Wesley Chapel, as well as state CFO Alex Sink -- the Democratic gubernatorial candidate who lost to Scott last month -- joined Calabro and the TaxWatch team for the release. Both Sink and Weatherford served on the task force that assembled the recommendations.

In the report, TaxWatch called for the state to bring the public pension system more into line with practices used in the private sector; review the criminal justice and correctional systems; increase managed care in Medicaid; and reduce travel costs for state workers.

This report identifies how the state can cut spending without harming core services, said Jacksonville businessman David Smith, the task force chairman. Smith, a past chairman of Florida TaxWatch, retired as chairman and CEO of PSS World Medical. The task force has spent the last year looking under every rock to find the right kind of savings for the state.

Smith added that the recommendations would help increase government efficiency without taking away from the services expected by Floridians.