The Florida House held a marathon session to pass its budget on Thursday. Unlike the Senates $69.5 billion budget that passed unanimously on Wednesday, the House passed its $67.2 billion on a 74-44 partisan-lines vote.
After spending the better part of eight hours on Wednesday on procedural matters, the House engaged in four hours of debate on the budget.
Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, laid out the rules of the debate, giving both the pro and con sides of the debate 2 hours and 10 minutes each.
Republicans said that the House budget reflected how they were forced to make hard decisions and set priorities.
We only have so much money to spend, insisted Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples.
Were facing historic budget difficulties, said Rep. Anitere Flores, R-Miami. The fact is Floridians have less money and, therefore, we should have less money.
The Democratic responses to the budget were managed by Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek.
Rep. Janet Long, D-Seminole, started the Democratic attacks, blasting the budget as bad for all Floridians. I know were in tough times and it will be difficult to pass the budget, but this budget threatens Florida families, she said. Long attacked the proposed budget as delaying construction jobs, threatening public servants and cutting payments to health providers.
Longs comments previewed subsequent remarks from her fellow Democrats, who attacked the budget for not funding education initiatives and threatening public employees pension plans.
Flores defended the House proposal on education and said the House had prioritized protecting classroom spending. We have a minor reduction in spending that comes down to less than 1 percent per student, she said.
Rep. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, compared the House and Senate budgets and pointed out that the Senate budget was relying on $900 million in extra federal funding for Medicaid and $400 million in funds from a compact with the Seminole tribe. The agreement with the tribes has not been finalized.
Soto said every member of the House intended to accept the federal funds and that, with the state relying on the lottery, there should be no moral qualms about accepting money off of gambling.
We have to use all the resources at our disposal and stop kidding ourselves, Soto said. Lets get real. Who are we kidding?
The harshest attacks on the budget came from incoming House Democratic Leader Rep. Ron Saunders, D-Key West, who blasted the Republicans for raising taxes and said that it was fitting the budget was released on April Fools Day.
National issues emerged during the debate. Saunders and Rep. Marty Kiar, D-Davie, taunted the Republicans by thanking President Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress for providing federal stimulus funds so Florida could balance its budget.
Republicans in the House criticized federal spending, including the stimulus funds. Lets remember thats our money, said House Majority Leader Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach. The money of the taxpayers.
While most Republicans said the House budget was a necessary evil, one Republican broke ranks to denounce the budget as too large.
We did not go far enough, insisted Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne. We cannot tax and spend our way out of this recession.
We need to continue to reduce the footprint from the back and throat from the necks and back of the Florida taxpayers, Workman said to heavy applause from the Republicans.
After returning from the Easter holiday, the House will confer with the Senate to approve a final budget to send to Gov. Charlie Crist.
Flores cautioned that there would be difficulties ahead as the House and the Senate confer to hammer out the final budget. The Senate is increasing spending but is doing so on the back of Floridians, Flores said.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or (850) 727-0859.
