Special Session of the Florida Legislature and the Budget Shortfalls

February 6, 2009                                                                 Issue  #55

Gearing up for the 2009 legislative session
Legislators were back in Tallahassee this week -- and will be here the next two weeks for pre-session committee meetings. The talk around the Capitol continues to focus on the economy, state budget and federal stimulus package. 

Bills for the upcoming session are in varying stages of development. This morning’s count shows that 1,074 bills have been numbered for the 2009 session.

Here’s a few notable pieces of legislation to put on your radar screens.  Remember these bills have a long path before (or if) they become law:

Penny Tax Legislation HB 731 Rep. Bullard/Sen. Deutch (not numbered yet in the Senate) -- So far, the cuts to public education have totaled almost $3.9 billion and based on current revenue projections, we are facing the potential of additional funding reductions. Legislators have been reluctant to talk about the revenue side of the budget – and continue to talk about more cuts. This bill would increase sales and use tax by 1-percent for a period of three years with the funds generated by the increase to be dedicated to funding education. The plan is not designed to be a permanent solution to Florida’s broken tax structure, but it does start a conversation about the need for tax reform and gives elected leaders three years to discuss longer-term solutions.  Florida’s sales tax is in some ways less regressive than in other states because of the exemptions for certain items and services (such as food and medicine). Under this proposal, tourists and other visitors will share the burden, which is a point that is popular with Florida voters. It is important to remember this proposal is a “conversation changer” in Tallahassee. 

Teacher Retention HB 355 Rep. Kiar/Sen. Deutch (not numbered yet in the Senate) -- This FEA-supported bill creates Florida Teacher Induction Initiative to provide support to new teachers and requires districts to develop and implement a plan. Districts would be required to submit a plan to address its new teacher attrition rate under certain circumstances and requires DOE to establish data collection and reporting system to determine annual district cost of replacing teachers. The bill also requires DOE to conduct a study to determine relationship of teacher retention and attrition to student academic achievement and requires the school report card delivered to parents to include district's teacher turnover rate.  

Bus Driver Notification Rep. Soto (not numbered yet and Senate sponsor pending) -- This bill if passed would require the school district to notify bus drivers and paraprofessionals if one of their assigned students is charged with a felony or a delinquent act that would be classified a felony if the child were an adult.  Currently Florida statute only requires the notification of teachers.

Public Records Exemption HB 409 Rep. Jones/SB 1260 Sen. Hill – Will, if passed, provide an exemption from public records requirements the personal identifying information of employees of public educational institutions in the state, including spouses and children of those employees. It also protects the personal health information of public education employees, their spouses and children that is held by public educational institutions because of the employee's participation in group health insurance plan or program.

Florida School for the Deaf and Blind Salary Proposal HB 399 by Rep. Proctor/SB 1174 Sen. Wise -- If passed, will require that salaries for full-time instructional personnel at Florida School for the Deaf and Blind will be increased annually according to average of certain comparable salaries; requires annual negotiation of salary schedules; provides for implementation based on funding.

Personal Health Info Exemption HB 135 Rep. McKeel/SB 270 Sen. Dockery and SB 468 Sen. Fasano -- These bills all place exemptions from public records requirements for personal identifying information of certain insured dependents under the state group health insurance plan.

DROP and Reemployment after Retirement SB 1182 by Sens. Fasano and Gaetz -- Prohibits a retired person from receiving both a salary from an employer in the state-administered retirement system and retirement benefits. The bill allows reemployment by an FRS employer in a full-time or in a part-time capacity as in current law but disallows the collection of retirement pay during the second career. The employee will also not be allowed to earn a second retirement thus the FRS employer would not pay FRS contributions for the reemployed member. If the bill passes it will not be retroactive. It is intended to prevent "double dipping" as highlighted in some recent newspaper accounts. FEA will oppose SB 1182 at least from the perspective of how it impacts our members.

Defined Contribution Retirement Program SB 534 by Sen. Fasano -- Limits the option of enrolling in the State Retirement System's defined benefit program or defined contribution program to public employees employed before January 1, 2010. The bill requires public employees employed on or after January 1, 2010, to enroll in the defined contribution program, FEA will strongly oppose this bill!!

Currently, there is not a House companion to either bill but we expect there will be before March 3, the first day of the 2009 Session.

Note: Because these bills were filed, we suspect that is why rumors are rampant that there is legislation to prevent the added years (6-8) of DROP. At this time, there is not legislation that impacts DROP participation or the added years for instructional personnel. It is important to remember that the added years (6-8) of DROP are on an annual contract basis at the sole discretion of the school board and are only for instructional personnel, exclusive of paraprofessionals. The first five years are at the discretion of the employee. With the budget crisis, most school boards are not granting the added years and that has caused the number of questions to increase.

Speaker who?

After weeks of speculation surrounding the investigations into the questionable funding issues related to a community college, an airplane hanger, a powerful Panhandle businessman and his relationship with Speaker Ray Sansom (R-Destin), Sansom handed over the speaker’s gavel to Rep. Larry Cretul (R-Ocala). Monday night, Republicans met and voted quietly without debate to make Cretul the speaker of the House. A confirmation vote will take place the first day of the 2009 legislative session on March 3. Not everyone was pleased with the turn of events but the renowned Republican discipline remained intact and they voted together – for the moment.

Cretul quickly announced a few changes in his leadership to fill committee chair positions he formally held – handing Sansom a role as Chair of the Policy Council.  Cretul also appointed Rep. Ron Reagan (R-Sarasota) as speaker pro tempore.

Powerball, the Lottery and education

As the legislature wrestles with another shortfall in revenue collection the question inevitably comes up: What about the Lottery money? 

You’ve seen the billboards proclaiming “$19 billion to education since 1988.” Sounds like a lot of cash. Before anyone gets too carried away by the billboard message, let’s look at those billions in relation to the big picture of education funding. 

Many of us still recall when Lottery funds became a hot button issue in education funding: It was packaged and sold to Florida voters as a way to enhance funding for education – it was all to be extra money on top of regular appropriations. Then legislative shenanigans turned the influx of new Lottery dollars into a way to divert general revenue dollars to other programs and projects – leaving a net gain for education at zero. That situation changed and the Florida Lottery revenue did end up enhancing public education. 

But in the big picture of state funding, the dollars generated by the Lottery are rather small potatoes. Picture this: Of the approximately $20 billion state education budget only $1 billion to $1.5 billion comes from the lottery. That is less than 8 percent. Not a huge piece of the education pie.

What do Lottery dollars enhance? Roughly, half goes to public schools, one fourth goes to colleges and universities and one fourth goes to student financial aid – Bright Futures and other state student financial aid.

If you use a little simple math the impact of that $19 billion claim on the billboards becomes about $1billion per year since the Lottery first began about 20 years ago. That is pretty much what the Lottery has brought in each year for the past 20 years: between $1 billion and $1.5 billion. In other words the pot of money raised through the lottery has not grown. And 20 years ago, $1billion could buy a lot more than it can buy today.

Historically when new games are added -- such as Powerball -- there will be a slight bump in sales. After the newness wears off the sales go back to normal. 

Also, keep in mind that people buy lottery tickets to hoping to win the big prize. The Lottery is a $4 billion a year business which in 2007-2008 paid commissions to retailers for ticket sales of around $235 million and paid out $2.52 billion in prizes.

What it boils down to is Lottery money is not near enough to fill the big cracks in our education budget.  But if you ever have the lucky numbers, please think about donating a little to public education or at the very least spend some of it in Florida.

Redistricting amendments clear court

Florida Supreme Court justices ruled favorably on two proposed constitutional amendments aimed at preventing legislators from picking their voters – in other words gerrymandering. It is part of the reason so many of our members of Congress and the Legislature face no opposition year after year.  Something is wrong when the legislative mapmakers have more effect on the way the Legislature is elected than the voters do. 

Right now the Legislature does the redistricting work every ten years. These constitutional amendments would change the way it's done, setting out standards for redistricting that would help stop favoritism for any party or incumbent and would prevent denying equal opportunity for racial or language minorities.

The next step for supporters to get the two amendments on the ballot is to begin collecting enough signatures -- 676,811 signatures each. If the signature drive is successful, the amendments will be placed on the November 2, 2010, ballot.  Each amendment would then need to garner 60 percent of the votes cast.

For more information visit online at: www.fairdistrictsflorida.org.

Economic recovery bill in the U.S. Senate

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is taking a beating in the Senate as we put the finishing touches on this publication. The situation is very fluid as senators are working to cut some spending out of the bill to make it more palatable to Republicans. 

As we write, amendments are being filed and debated. Of great concern is an amendment brought by Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) that  could dramatically reduce funding for key education programs in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  FEA has sent an Action Alert asking members to contact Sen. Mel Martinez to encourage him to vote against the Nelson/Collins amendment.

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the bill, a two-year, $819-billion federal package that includes almost a $150 billion investment aimed at injecting much needed funds into the nation's schools, states and communities to cope with the worst economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression.

To put this in context, the current budget of the U.S. Department of Education is $60 billion, so this bill provides an influx of funds to schools and colleges some two and a half times the size of the entire federal education budget.

The House vote was 244 to 188, with no Republican support. The U.S. Senate is now debating a similar measure, and the Obama administration is optimistic that this bill will clear the Senate soon. 

Major provisions of the legislation include:

•      $41 billion to local school districts through Title I ($13 billion – which includes $2 billion for school improvement grants to help schools that have field AYP), IDEA ($13.6 billion, which include aid to infant and families), a new School Modernization and Repair Program ($14 billion), and Education Technology State Grants ($1 billion).

•      $79 billion in state fiscal relief to prevent cutbacks to key services. 61 percent of this money must be spent on education, primarily to restore public school and college budgets back to their 2008 levels. The remaining funds may be spent by Governors on public safety or education.

•      Nearly $18 billion in student financial assistance, including $17 billion for Pell Grant program funding and $490 million in work study assistance.

•      $6 billion for higher education modernization.

•      $700 million for vocational rehabilitation.

In addition, the tax portion of the economic recovery package includes $22 billion in school construction bond tax credits.

The bill also includes critical increases in health care, nutrition assistance and unemployment insurance.

Based on the House bill, NEA has developed a detailed analysis by state and congressional district on the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The funding in the bill does come with a few strings. To receive its share of the $79 billion in education fiscal relief, a state must provide assurances that it is achieving equity in teacher distribution (as required by NCLB), improving collection and use of data from preschool through postsecondary education by establishing a longitudinal data system, and enhancing the quality of academic assessments required by NCLB.

Once a final bill is signed into law, we'll provide more details. You can read the House and Senate versions on the THOMAS site (enter "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009" in the search box for the 111th Congress). Also check out the Congressional Research Service's summary of potential allocations for Title I, IDEA, and school modernization in every school district in the nation.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

FEA Public Policy Advocacy

850.224.2078