Bad Crist

As if the budget cuts weren't bad enough, Crist is planning on making things worse by continuing Jeb's ridiculous privatization scheme, this time by privatizing toll roads and the lottery.

So Much for the "People's" Governor

With his proposed budget cuts, Charlie Crist shows his true colors.

Central Florida Political Pulse:

Gov. Charlie Crist’s office just released his list of $983.2 million in revisions to Florida’s out-of-balance budget, a day after lawmakers officially delayed their special budget-cutting session.

The list of possible cuts is sweeping. Among the proposals is a $10.2 million savings gained by delaying this year's funding for new medical schools at the University of Central Florida and Florida International University.

UCF also would lose $1.7 million earmarked for the school's new life sciences programs, expected to compliment the eventual new medical school. The governor also would cut out a $43 million increase in prescription drug payments to Medicaid patients, along with other payments to hospitals treating poor patients.

Despite the cuts, Crist said he felt he had achieved his goal in cutting carefully.

"We want to preserve the funding in education in the classroom, we want to make sure that the most vulnerable among us are protected while we reduce and tighten our belt," Crist said after releasing the blueprint. "And we want to make sure that public safety is always paramount and well-funded in our state."

Crist also got down into the weeds with some of his recommended reductions. Among them: universities would have to raise their thermostats in classrooms, while another $368,000 could be saved by allowing many Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle personnel to not wear uniforms at drivers' license offices.

The plan would actually impose about $466 million in cuts, including $60 million from environmental programs, $33 million from juvenile justice, a $104 million cut in Medicaid rates to nursing homes and $114 million less for safety-net hospitals.

“Florida has a promising economic outlook,” Crist said in a letter to House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, and Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, released Thursday. “Our economy is expected to return to a normal rate of growth (next year). While reductions need to be made, the goal is to provide a fiscally responsible bridge to a re-fired economy without hurting the people we serve.”

To that end, Crist is asking lawmakers to sweep about $245 million out of dedicated state trust funds, plus sell about $315 million in new education bonds to speed up school construction.

Crist largely spares law enforcement and public safety agencies in his plans, while making his biggest proposed cut --$375.7 million – to health care services to the poor.

Not everybody is taking the cuts lying down:

The recommended higher education budget cuts that Gov. Charlie Crist released Thursday might violate state law, maintain some education leaders.

I hope this translates into a lawsuit. Our colleges and universities are great in Florida, but they won't stay that way if they become a regular target of these type of cuts.