Some of the proposals read more like an eye chart than a way to save millions of dollars.
Parts of FDOT and FHP into FDLE. Parts of DCA and AWI into a new JEOA.
Yet those were some of the options being weighed Thursday by the Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Appropriations Subcommittee.
Legislators have been looking for ways to fill Floridas $3.6 billion budget deficit, and finding savings in reducing redundant functions of state agencies and finding efficiencies, rather than implementing drastic cuts to some services that could prove more attractive to lawmakers.
If we dont take some of these options, were going to make some very deep, draconian cuts, not continue to kick the can down the road, said Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, who chairs the subcommittee.
Gaetz added that his committee needs to find between $50 million and $55 million in savings -- their share of the states budget deficit.
One of the biggest budget-saving consolidation options presented to the subcommittee was a plan to combine parts of the Department of Community Affairs and parts of the Agency for Workforce Innovation into a new Jobs and Economic Opportunity Agency.
The idea is still in its early draft stages and is still being developed by legislative staffers, but senators appeared encouraged by a plan that is estimated to save the state $8 million a year.
Under the plan, the DCAs Land Administration would move to the Department of Environmental Protection, Emergency Management would go to the executive office of the governor, and Building Code Compliance and Hazard Mitigation would transfer to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Early learning programs like voluntary pre-kindergarten classes, which are currently run under the AWI, would be moved to the Department of Education.
Another set of options presented to the committee dealt with merging parts of the Department of Transportation with the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, who sits on the committee, is currently drafting a bill that would consolidate the FDOTs Office of Motor Carrier Compliance and the DHSMVs Florida Highway Patrol with the Department of Law Enforcement.
The move would likely have minor savings in the first year, but is estimated to save about $1.2 million a year after that.
Latvala and other senators heaped skepticism on a separate proposal that would have eliminated the FHP and contracted out its functions to local sheriffs, saving a similar amount.
Im not sure youd have 67 sheriffs that would willingly take on the Highway Patrols responsibilities, Latvala said.
Gaetz, while eager to find savings, cautioned that the plans for merging the functions of different state agencies were in their embryonic stages.
These are just options. Theyre not proposals, theyre not bills, nobody has endorsed them, Gaetz said.
Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
