by Kathleen Haughney
The News Service of Florida
Senate budget writers sent a simple message to Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday.
“I like your budget. I just don’t think we’re going to get the money to be able to do it,” Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, who chairs the Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee, said after being presented with highlights of the governor’s spending proposal for the court system and criminal justice agencies.
Gov. Charlie Crist - no relation to Victor Crist - proposed a $5.2 billion public safety budget last week that includes $2.4 billion for corrections, $608 million for juvenile justice and $459.8 million for the state court system. Included in the proposal are a few cuts - he’s proposed shutting down three juvenile detention centers, reducing staff in other areas, and would dip into some trust fund principal to balance the plan.
But Crist is calling for increases in a year when lawmakers enter the session about $3 billion in the hole overall.
The courts, under the governor’s proposal, would see an $8 million increase, which includes six months rent for the new courthouse for the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee. It would also provide for maintenance and repair and enhancing the judicial inquiry system, a state court technology initiative that gives judiciary officials around the state access to a dashboard of criminal background data sources.
To help fund the court budget, Crist’s proposal relies on $33.9 million from the State Courts Revenue Trust Fund, $10 million from the Courts Mediation and Arbitration Trust Fund and $2 million from the Courts Education Trust Fund.
Victor Crist said he has instructed the Senate committee staff to start with the governor’s budget as a model and to go backward until the money matches up. Sen. Crist said he wants to be able to at least keep prison gates closed and courthouses open, as the governor’s proposed budget would allow.
“I am hoping that in this legislative budget process we are able to identify the resources to do the same,” Victor Crist said. “I feel like public safety and access to the courts is a top priority and should be treated as such.”
Committees in both the Senate and House are currently doing budget exercises to try to identify cost efficiencies and priorities in all of the major areas - education, health care and public safety. Overall, the state is looking at a $3 billion deficit, which the governor is hoping can be made up with a combination of federal aid, minor cuts, and trust fund sweeps. He is not proposing any new taxes - and in fact is calling for a corporate tax cut - and Senate President Jeff Atwater has also said there would be no new taxes or fees in the fiscal year 2011 budget.
Victor Crist has also said that court fees are not a target for raising revenue.