Florida's Family Budget Presentation
By House Appropriations Chair Bruce Kyle
I am honored to rise today to present the House Appropriations bill, which we call "Florida's Family Budget". First, I want to thank the Appropriations Subcommittee chairs for creating budgets that set clear priorities for responsible spending. It was their work that helped us create a budget that protects Florida's most vulnerable citizens while living within our means.
I also want to thank all of the Appropriations staff for the hard work and expertise they put into this budget. They are a fantastic group of professionals and I am proud of the job they are doing to help the 105 Committee and Subcommittee members here in the House.
Today, I proudly present to you "Florida's Family Budget". Like any family, we take our budget seriously. When faced with difficult decisions, we turned to principled positions, not political posturing. When forced to set priorities, we favored the needs of Florida's future over the pet projects of the past. We chose the needs of Florida's families and most vulnerable, over the wants of Florida's government.
In total, our proposed budget for next year is nearly $52.2 BILLION dollars. While other states are wrestling to simply stay afloat, our budget grows over this year by 3.54% - and this is prior to including the authorization for school class size bonding. Our friends across the hall would have you believe that Florida simply can't survive on this budget. I'm proud to say that I just don't agree with them.
"Florida's Family Budget" proves that tough economic times do not have to punish our children, elderly, and most vulnerable citizens. We have funded medical assistance to the needy, prescription drugs for seniors, increased pay for school teachers, and still balanced the budget—all without raising taxes or new gambling.
This was something that many said could not be done.
Drawing from our real world experiences, House members have invoked kitchen table economics. When tight times come in my family, discussions with my wife around the kitchen table inevitably establish our priorities according to what we can afford. Whether these are decisions about putting new tires on the car, refitting pipes in the bathroom or getting braces for the kids' teeth, Florida families prioritize, plan, and persevere. They make the hard decisions.
This year the House Appropriation Subcommittees took that same kitchen table approach. The Speaker placed more members on Appropriations Committees than seen in recent history. These members undertook a massive zero-based budgeting review as we formed our budget priorities. By starting from scratch, House members were able to build a budget that is based on the needs of Florida's future and is not entangled by decades-old political fights and spending demands.
We also promised to put integrity back into the budgeting process. Last year, over $1 billion of one-time dollars were magically used to fund ongoing programs with no more than a wink and a nod. That is a practice we simply cannot afford to continue. Our budget proposal has identified $875 million in areas that represent true one-time investments or areas of concern that need to be scrutinized more closely next year. After including our working capital fund and non-operating transfers, we completely balance our budget to the kind of dollars that are available. I believe that the House will prove to be unique in this commitment.
We have also sought to end the sense of entitlement that special interests in Tallahassee have enjoyed for too long. To do this we have permanently redirected nearly $642 million back into the General Revenue Fund. In this respect, "Florida's Family Budget" forces the victors of past political battles and back room deals to compete against the needs of Florida's future. Rather than have their interests fight fairly for Florida's scarce tax dollars, these groups would like us to consider their pot of money off limits and cut the funding or raise the taxes on someone else.
There are also those that would force vulnerable people to do without, while leaving money on the table for another day. Our budget stands behind the belief that there is no future luxury worth the price of leaving someone in need. We have reinvested $640 million of unused funds to ensure that the most vulnerable have a safety net during this time of economic uncertainty. Just like Florida's families, we will not refuse to take a child to the doctor in order to save for the summer vacation.
We understand the importance of a stable and safe environment for our children to live and learn. "Florida's Family Budget" supports programs that are effective and provides additional support to those in need. Our budget provides over $16.5 million for additional staff (484.5 positions) among the Department of Children & Families, Community Based Care providers, and Sheriffs Offices to address child welfare caseloads. Similarly, our budget allocates $32.6 million to the CINS/FINS program.
Through these and other ways, our budget recognizes the need to give at-risk children a chance to succeed. That is why we have funded the Governor's Mentoring Initiative at $12.25 million to give some children the positive influence they may lack. That is why we have also fully funded PACE Centers for Girls, so young people will have a safe refuge from the streets.
While PACE Centers provide an indispensable service these women, we must also ensure that our children are given the chance to succeed in the classroom.
The House stands side by side with Governor Bush and his passion for teaching children to read. That's why we have funded the Governor's Just Read, Florida! Initiative at $30 million. Additionally, our budget increases public education spending by over $140 per pupil, while also meeting the constitutional mandate of Floridians by allocating over $600 million to reduce class sizes.
However, the center of success for Florida's school children is the classroom. To ensure that our children have excellent teachers and excellent classrooms, the "Florida Family Budget" includes a comprehensive reform package designed to recruit, retain, and reward excellent teachers. We provide $315 million in increased teacher compensation to empower classroom teachers and pay them as professional educators.
Education is not just a priority for our children in primary schools and K-12. Graduation from high school should not be a final destination, but a mile post on the highway to success. Florida has one of the finest higher education systems in the country, and "Florida's Family Budget" guarantees the quality of our colleges and Floridians access to them.
We have increased funding to our community colleges. And to ensure that any hard-working, deserving students have access to an affordable secondary education, we allocated nearly $233 million to the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship program.
"Florida's Family Budget" will not only support our children and reform our education. As we all know, Florida is the greatest place in the country to live, work, and retire. People from around the world come here to enjoy the beaches, attractions, and unique environment that only Florida can offer.
Our budget makes preserving our natural habitat a top priority. We fund Florida Forever. We fund Everglades Restoration. Additionally, our budget includes $140 million in underground storage tank cleanup, a 21% increase over current year funding.
While maintaining our environment, we continue to encourage people to make Florida not just a vacation destination, but a place to call home. We must continue to keep taxes low to grow the economy. But that is not enough. We can not make it harder for the families to achieve the American dream of buying a home.
That's why this budget contains $193 million in funding for affordable housing. And just as importantly, "Florida's Family Budget" does not have taxes or fees that push the American Dream further out of reach to Florida's families.
For too long the needs of our seniors have been taken for granted. Our Seniors have been the victim of political promises and partisan ploys. "Florida's Family Budget" makes caring and providing for seniors a top priority. Additionally, this House has already put people over politics by passing a meaningful bi-partisan prescription drug plan that will provide over $30 million in relief to millions of Florida seniors.
Some say that we can't afford to provide basic prescription drug coverage to seniors. To those naysayers, I ask them how can we afford not to.
Sadly, prescription drugs cannot cure all of our healthcare needs. Today, hundreds of thousands of Floridians are having their life slowly sucked away by a silent slayer. Alzheimer's is a disease that affects not only the afflicted, but those that care for and love them as well. Thanks to the leadership of Speaker Byrd, we are slowly piecing together the Alzheimer's puzzle. "Florida's Family Budget" includes $5.6 million for a Medicaid Home & Community-Based Waiver program that will provide care and assistance to hundreds of Alzheimer's sufferers.
The healthcare needs of Florida's most vulnerable does not end there. That is why our budget has allocated over $291 million to the Medically Needy program.
"Florida's Family Budget" meets needs of the medically needy, the needs of our children, the needs of our seniors, meets the needs of our families, the needs of Florida's future, and the needs of our most vulnerable. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Over the weeks, months, and years ahead, you will continue to see the fruit of our work grow from the seeds of principle, priority, and prudent policy planted today.
While "Florida's Family Budget" meets many needs, there are some that it does not. Our budget does not meet the need to raise taxes on Florida's families, the need to secure the status of special interests, the need to play political games, or the need to heed the siren call of gambling.
Speaker Byrd likes to say that today is a good day in the state of Florida. I agree with him. And I think most Floridians do too. Unfortunately, too many politicians and pundits in Tallahassee prefer to paint a picture of gloom and doom. While they want to believe the sky is falling, I believe the sky is the limit.
"Florida's Family Budget" is a blue-print for how things can and should be done. Our budget is proof that we can reprioritize to meet the needs of Florida's future and most vulnerable without raising taxes on Florida's working families.
Thank you for your time today, and I encourage you to support "Florida's Family Budget".
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