Florida budget : -3.3B$ for education, lower corporate income tax, health -70M$, aid to poor -1.5B$

Anyway, the whole thing is insane.

State budget shortfalls may prompt legislators to make sweeping changes

Gov. Rick Scott's proposed budget sets the tone for top-to-bottom cuts in 2011, from scaling back public pensions and education, to privatizing correctional facilities and merging a number of state departments.

PRIVATIZING PRISONS... you know how that end up... see : California and three strikes law...

Education :

From per-student budgets to how teachers are paid and retire, proposed changes to education could hit kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers the hardest.

Under Scott's plans for education funding, Treasure Coast districts would receive 8 to 10 percent less money per-student, and schools statewide would see at least $3.3 billion less from the state than this year.

The cuts could mean teacher layoffs and less educational opportunities for local students.

This year could see teachers, among other public employees, take a pay cut that would go toward their pension plan, and new hires would move in phases into 401(k) plans. Scott proposed a 5 percent contribution, though a pension plan in the Senate suggests lower contributions.

At least teachers would pay in their 401k... which they should have been doing for a long time.

Paying teachers based on student performance is back in discussion through Senate Bill 736, which, in part, judges teachers based on student standardized test scores.

That won't end well... for the kids I mean.

Corporate income tax :

Scott's budget would lower corporate income tax from 5 to 3.3 percent by January 2012

Health :

County health departments might change shape in 2011 if plans go through to combine them with several other health offerings to form Public Health Services. The county departments would stand lose about $70 million in funding next year in Scott's budget.

Some mental health programs would also bear the brunt of cuts under Negron's Health and Human Services budget, and substance abuse programs would be drawn back significantly, Negron said.

"I'm not talking about a 5 or 10 percent, I'm talking about much more significant cuts in those areas.

Poor :

Organizations that provide local "safety net" services — basic needs programs for the poor, elderly, youth and other at-risk groups — are feeling pressures of potential cuts from the state.Negron, chair of the Senate's Health and Human Services Appropriations subcommittee, has called for $1.5 billion in cuts from his committee's budget.

"Because of limited funding, it might create waiting lists for services, particularly those that affect folks with disabilities, the elderly or special populations," said Jim Vojcsik, United Way of Martin County executive director.

And of course this is happening while the demand for those services are at an all time high and rising.

This is sad, and another example of how bad the economy is. Recovery my butt.

Unfortunately it's par for the course at this point, and is only going to be repeated by just about every state government over the course of the year. They are intentionally bleeding the poor dry and lining the pockets of the wealthy so they are prepared when the SHTF and we are left to get at each others throats like a bunch of starved wild animals.

reply to post by Vitchilo


Let's hear it for old Governor Voldemort. Hissssssssss

www.cfnews13.com...
Theres already a county where the education budget got stuck between a rock and a hard place.