A1A South

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — In a bleak sign of what’s to come in writing next year’s budget, lawmakers Monday voted on millions in cuts to state spending from this year’s budget, reductions that largely fell on education.Lawmakers in both the House and Senate must deal with a shortfall in tax dollars brought on by a slumping economy. While the biggest cuts legislators agreed on Monday were in education,
they also touched on health care, law enforcement and environmental programs.It was a practice run of sorts on the day before the Legislature begins its annual two-month session on Tuesday. In the coming months, lawmakers will have to build next year’s budget with even less money, meaning a number of state agencies and programs will have to make do with less.On Monday, however, it was the $70 billion budget from the current year facing cuts; the House Policy and Budget Council approved a bill cutting current year spending by $543 million.

In the Senate, six separate appropriations committees made similar cuts. One committee approved a cut of $265 million from the current year pre-K-12 education budget. Another Senate panel approved a $92 million cut in funds to colleges and universities.

Other Senate committees voted on smaller cuts to other parts of the budget, including a $36 million reduction in health care. Cuts from all the committees will be combined into a single bill before they are voted on. That vote is expected in both chambers by the end of the week.

Any differences would then have to be worked out between the two chambers before lawmakers draw up the budget for next fiscal year, which will have to be cut even more.

Most school districts, state agencies, and others who count on state money have known this was coming — they were warned months ago that the reductions would be made. Recent signs about the economy have made it clear that it’s likely to get worse before it gets better.

Source:  FirstCoastNews

I seem to recall in the early 90s when all the new(er) teachers were told that they could not count on jobs next year (mostly to scare people into increasing property taxes, if I recall correctly).  As it is, there are a lot of teachers reaching retirement age.   Five are retiring at our school alone this year with more hitting the 30+ mark next year.   New teachers hired to fill the vacancies left after the lateral transfers will, if coming from outside the county, start at the bottom of the pay scale and earn less, not a lot less because the raises are fairly abysmal, but still less.  I expect many administrative positions at the school board level will be cut. 

The university cuts are something else again.  There are, (IMO),  a LOT of classes and instructors that can be cut from the universities, perhaps even entire degrees, in the squishy “sciences”.   Women’s studies are worthless.  If  you want to know about women in history, check out a book.  You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on classes for that.  If the universities cut some of the bullshit degrees, everybody would be far better off, including the people who might actually have a degree that may enable them to make an actual living.

Cuts in law enforcement are coming at a time when Jacksonville is seeing an unprecedented crime wave as gangs move in.  That is really going to hurt, and I expect Jacksonville is going to have to make deeper cuts elsewhere in order to keep law enforcement funding at the level it needs to be.  I expect the “speeding tax”, already pretty steep, to go even higher. 
 

Cuts in medical were expected (by me).   Increases in medical coverage always occur when the state is flush with cash; however, the state cannot continue to pay increasing costs during a time of decreasing revenue.  Also hard hit are hospitals that cannot afford to keep treating people in the emergency rooms for free who have no intention of ever paying, some of whom are not even here legally.