by Brandon Larrabee
The News Service of Florida
One day after Gov. Rick Scott and the Agency for Persons with Disabilities issued an emergency rule aimed at avoiding a deficit of about $170 million, the Senate Budget Committee approved a measure reiterating that the department isn’t allowed to spend more than the Legislature budgets for it.
The bill (SPB 7178), the main thrust of which was supported by advocates for the disabled, passed on the second day of committee meetings to consider a nearly $69.8 billion spending plan for the coming fiscal year and dozens of supporting pieces of legislation.
The move came less than 24 hours after Scott and the agency announced an emergency rule slashing provider rates by 15 percent to help stave off a deficit estimated at anywhere between $169.3 million and $174.3 million.
According to a review by Scott’s chief inspector general, the agency overruns resulted from a lack of financial controls to make sure spending stayed within the bounds authorized by the Legislature.
“It was headed for a cliff, and the decision to do this took a sharp turn away from the cliff,” Scott spokesman Brian Burgess said Friday.
Even so, some advocates said they worried about the impact of the rate reduction on state residents served by the waiver programs that caused the deficit.
“I do believe people are going to come to harm from that,” said Deborah Linton, executive director of the ARC of Florida, at the budget committee meeting.
But while they differed with some technical details of the proposal, advocates at the meeting said they largely supported the Legislature’s efforts to keep the program from spending more than budgeted for the agency.
Some lawmakers at Friday’s meeting were stunned that the agency has made a habit for several years of overrunning its budget.
“We can’t get a handle on the budget unless the agencies are spending the amount they’re given,” said Sen. Eleanor Sobel (D-Hollywood). “This is sort of strange to me, that they’re not doing that.”
Lawmakers said the deficits were not necessarily a new development, but took on added urgency as the state’s budget shortfalls grew larger and larger. The Legislature is looking for a way to close a gap of almost $3.75 billion in the budget year that begins July 1.
“I think they’ve relied on all of our desire to help this population,” said Sen. J.D. Alexander (R-Lake Wales). “And, historically, we’ve figured out how to come up with the money. But we don’t have any money.”
Other lawmakers noted that the problem was not isolated at the agency. Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich (D-Weston) pointed out that savings projected from changes to the program haven’t always panned out. According to the inspector general’s review, two rate cuts were vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist.
“There’s enough fault to go around here,” said Rich.
“Hopefully, we appropriate an adequate amount for this program, but whatever we do appropriate, we have to live within that appropriation.”
Committee members were more divided on other measures as part of the effort to trim the budget.
Cuts to the Adult Medically Needy program passed over bipartisan objections, with Sen. Joe Negron (R-Stuart), the chamber’s health budget chief, saying those who lose coverage when the change goes into effect April 1, 2012, could still go to the hospital for emergency coverage and might qualify for other programs.
“Some of them would die if they don’t get those prescriptions. Do they then just show up at the hospital?” shot back Sen. Mike Fasano (R-New Port Richey).
Negron said the program would be his first priority if House-Senate budget negotiations produced more money for the health budget.
A plan to permanently shift in to general revenue more than $190 million in funding normally reserved for affordable housing was slammed by advocates who said it was too dramatic a step to take, because the Legislature already has the authority to sweep the housing trust fund every year without making the sweep permanent.
The bill “is totally unnecessary to do what you feel you need to do,” said Jaimie Ross, president of the Florida Housing Coalition.
But Alexander said the bill (SPB 7200) was an acknowledgment that the Legislature has swept the fund for several years, and that about $1.6 billion in other funding remains for the account.
He also said Florida still has a surplus of available housing as the state continues to recover from the crash in the real estate market.
“I can’t see that losing $194 million permanently, where we can dedicate it to schools or taking care of the critical needs of the state at this time, significantly disadvantages an overall effort that’s over a billion and half dollars in federal and other funds coming back into that agency,” he said.