2007B SPECIAL SESSION

 LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

 Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Legislators were called back to Tallahassee this week with a mission to solve the problems with Florida’s property tax system. House Speaker Marco Rubio and Senate President Ken Pruitt released bills Tuesday morning, giving legislators little time to study the content or examine the impact of the bills. Of great concern is the fact that the proposed tax reforms would cut the 2008-09 education budget by $1.59 billion. After five years, education would lose nearly $7.2 billion. This would be the largest cut to education funding in history.

But they want us to trust them to find new funding to make up the difference…

To the Legislature’s credit, they did a good job of funding K-12 education for fiscal year 2007-2008, in what will be a slim budget year, by increasing funding over the previous year by 6.84 percent or $1.23 billion. Think about that in comparison to the $1.59 billion in the first year that would be cut if the proposed reforms are approved by voters: that represents 8.24% of the 2007-08 public schools appropriation. The point is that we would be facing -- if this legislation passes and voters approve of the resulting constitutional amendment -- is funding levels that would ensure that Florida remain at the bottom of national rankings. And remember, these figures do not include public higher education funding, which generally feels the effects of budget cutting before any other constituency.

Here’s what has happened so far:

Tuesday, the House Policy and Budget committee listened to nearly two hours of public testimony by members of the Coalition for Fair and Comprehensive Tax Reform (of which FEA has been an active participant), labor, human services, firefighters, city and county commissioners, and even the business community; all sharing their concerns with the current legislation. FEA lobbyist Kevin Watson speaking before the committee explained that the Legislature would need $2.2 BILLION in new school funds for 2008-09 just to replace the property tax funds and to fund the Class Size Amendment. They would need at least $2.8 BILLION to replicate the 2007-08 school funding appropriation.  He then reminded them that “the Legislature under the direction of Governor Bush shifted the responsibility of school funding to a greater reliance on property taxes.”

Wednesday, the House and Senate continued committee meetings throughout the day. At the moment, the vote appears to be split along party line in the House, while Senate Republicans are far more leery of the impact of the reforms. All are trying to weigh the political consequences of their vote.

The House will go into session Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. to debate and is expected to vote on the bills. We have a feeling it is going to be a long night.