Senate Approves Fiscal Year 2011-2012 Budget

The Florida Senate has passed its version of the budget in a 33-6 vote, with half of the Democratic caucus voting against it. The budget comes in at $69.8 billion.

Democratic opposition centered on cuts to health care, public-worker pensions and the search for other sources of revenue to fund them. Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich, D-Weston, said money could be found to mitigate the cuts by closing tax loopholes.

"Nobody is standing up here and urging that we have a tax increase. What I am urging is that we have fairness in our tax structure," Rich said, adding that a bill she filed closing a corporate tax loophole has not been taken up in committee.

But Republicans have pledged not to raise any taxes this legislative session, and other senators countered that the cuts were fair, considering the state's $3.8 billion deficit and the economic strain felt by businesses and taxpaying families.

"All of us would wish that we would be in the days of milk and honey. Our time, our hour is now, when we have a more difficult set of issues because we have a more difficult set of circumstances facing us," said Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville. "Iwould hope that as we feel the pain of state workers ... we also feel the pain of peole who are gathered around the kitchen table," he added.

Senate Budget Chairman J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, noted the current budget would not be the final version, as the Senate embarks on negotiations with the House, which has a current budget proposal that's $3.3 billion less than the Senate version. The differences stem mainly from the water management districts and clerks of court, which are swept from the House budget but included in the Senate's.

"There will be changes from the current positions in all that discussion," Alexander said.