Regular Session

[tanandblack]

Would anyone care to guess what the final outcome will be for us when the regular session is over. Alot of rumors floating around right now. Soar, copp, incidental ot all gone?

They can't do away with SOAR, cause there would be no activity except warnings and cards.

I've got a feeling this year is the year. With our leaders going to bat for our pay raise (did you guys get the email?), I'm thinking we may see as high as 10%. :devil:

Carry on.

I've got a feeling this year is the year. With our leaders going to bat for our pay raise (did you guys get the email?), I'm thinking we may see as high as 10%. :devil:

Carry on.

Don't think for a second that FHP will be the same on July 1, 2009.

Budget shadow looms over Florida Capitol as session convenes
By Jim Ash • florida capital bureau Chief • February 28, 2009

Florida lawmakers have 60 days every spring to complete their one constitutional mandate, passing a balanced budget.

But when they convene Tuesday, a punishing recession and a budget crisis will already be playing havoc with the schedule.

Forced to close a $700 million budget shortfall before the fiscal year ends June 30, and expecting another round of bad news from a March 13 revenue forecast, House and Senate leaders are flummoxed while they wait to see how deeply they will have to cut.

"Our projections are going to be very, very dismal," warned House Republican Leader Larry Cretul of Ocala, who will be formally installed as speaker on Tuesday.
A week before the session began, lawmakers still didn't know how much of the state's share of the federal stimulus package, $12.2 billion over the next three years, will be available to soften another round of draconian cuts to public schools.

Without a federal waiver, Florida could stand to lose $2.4 billion of the federal school dollars.

"It seems to be a continuously moving target," Cretul said.

The question is even more vital considering that plunging home values have created a $1 billion shortfall in school property-tax collections. School districts across the state are up in arms, warning about teacher layoffs and school closings.

Senate Finance and Tax Chairman Thad Altman, R-Melbourne, shakes his head.

Altman is reviewing more than 200 sales-tax exemptions for new sources of income, but any money that raises won't go very far to solving what is expected to be a $5 billion budget shortfall next year.

He predicts that Gov. Charlie Crist and House and Senate leaders will have to call a special session in late spring or early summer to sort out the mess.

"We have a $13 billion slug of the money coming in from the federal government, and we still don't know where we're going," he said. "It really is begging for an out-of-calendar solution."

Senate budget chairman JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, dejectedly predicts that lawmakers will likely have to increase school taxes to avoid another round of steeper cuts to education. Lawmakers slashed spending by $140 per student in a special session earlier this year.

"I think Chairman Alexander has a very good grasp," of the budget realities, Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said last week.

You will be lucky if you can just keep what you have. That includes all of us.

$5 Billion dollars short, those in the 117 recruit class need to start looking for jobs now, those from the 116 class should also start looking else where for employment and even those from the 115 class may not be safe from the positions that are gong to be cut from this budget shortfall.

The dismantling of FHP is almost complete.

I've got a feeling this year is the year. With our leaders going to bat for our pay raise (did you guys get the email?), I'm thinking we may see as high as 10%. :devil: What an ignorant little man you are. Good thing for you we don't do a lot of drug testing.

Carry on.

Don't even begin to get your hopes up this year. Just be thankful you have a job.

Real smart of the lawmakers to keep cutting budgets for schools so we'll have more uneducated criminals roaming the streets of Florida. Don't forget no money for the people they will need to clean up the cluster F'kin mess!

$5 Billion dollars short, those in the 117 recruit class need to start looking for jobs now, those from the 116 class should also start looking else where for employment and even those from the 115 class may not be safe from the positions that are gong to be cut from this budget shortfall.

The dismantling of FHP is almost complete.

I'm going to be in the 118th BRC starting in August. I'm so excited! How is PT?