Legislature doesn't go along with Scott's proposed cuts

As part of his signature plan to shrink state government and encourage private sector growth, Florida Gov. Rick Scott promised to cut the state workforce by 5 percent.

But the Republican-dominated Legislature didn't quite see things the same way.

In the budget legislators finally passed in the early morning hours Saturday, May 7, 2011, the House and Senate signed off on job reductions significantly less than what Scott proposed in his budget, and less than what Scott promised during the campaign.

The 2011-12 budget that passed and now awaits Scott's signature or veto includes funding for a total of 122,236 positions in state government (Page 407 of the budget conference report). That's a 3.55 percent decrease, or 4,492.75 fewer jobs, than currently budgeted (Page 445).

But not what Scott had promised or proposed. Scott's budget -- which he released on Feb. 7 -- proposed a 6.82 percent workforce cut in his first year and a total of 118,083.35 state positions (Page 164).

The biggest difference between the Legislative-approved budget and Scott's proposal is in the area of human services. The Legislature's budget retains an additional 1,039 jobs in Department of Children and Family and 619 jobs at the Department of Health.

The Legislature's budget, however, does contain some deeper job reductions than even Scott proposed -- including a cut of 111 jobs at the Department of Education (19 more than Scott proposed), and a 1,751-job cut at the Department of Corrections (61 more than proposed by Scott).

It's unclear how many of the job reductions will result in layoffs, and how many of the positions are now unfilled. For instance, Scott argued during the campaign that much of the workforce reduction could be accomplished simply through natural attrition. The state's human resources agency, the Department of Management Services, reported that 9.83 percent of career service state employees (by far the largest category of state workers) voluntarily left their government jobs in the 2009-10 year. Another 2.9 percent of the workforce was dismissed, or laid off by the state. That's 10,898 workers who left the state one way or another.

Senate and House leaders said the job reductions were necessary in order to present a balanced budget without raising taxes.

Scott promised 5 percent, but he didn't get it. The total job reduction in the budget that passed on May 6 is 3.55 percent. For now, we rate that a Compromise.