*"Lawmakers added a 5-percent tuition increase for universities and community colleges, which Crist didn't want.
*Legislators didn't increase the $147.5 million performance-merit-pay plan for teachers, which Crist wanted to double.
*Crist's request for a $100 million increase in the 'Florida Forever' land-purchasing program was also discarded.":
*lawmakers rejected [even more] of Gov. Charlie Crist's budget priorities, such as $37-million for a stockpile of antiviral drugs to fight avian flu,
*lawmakers rejected $28-million to replace touch screen voting machines with units that provide a paper trail
*lawmakers rejected $20-million for stem cell research.
*Crist asked for 3 percent across-the-board raises for state employees. The Legislature will instead give workers one-time bonuses of $1, 000.
For state workers, this is a particular slap in the face. Bonuses seem valuable because you get a lump sum, but when you get a 3 percent, let's say, raise next year, it comes out of the older, smaller number and excludes the bonus. This means that bonuses like this are, in effect, a cut towards future salary increases.
At least the bad guys cut $50 million from Crist's laughable request for $75 million to bring more movie production to Florida. But put that $25 million into context, that was money that could've gone to protect us against avian flu, protect our elections or funded potential cures to diseases.
And in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings when it is abundantly clear that we don't spend enough as a society on mental health, the legislature let HMOs do less to help those who need help:
The increase for HMOs is included in a bill lawmakers must pass at the same time they pass the state's $71.9 billion budget. In the same bill, legislative leaders also agreed to repeal a state law that mandates how much HMOs and other groups must spend treating mental health patients also covered by Medicaid.
In so many ways, the legislature is pulling the pin from the hand grenade and handing it to the people. How long until it explodes? |
