Republican legislators break their own promises
January 15, 2009 at 11:35 am by Wayne GarciaIt turns out that the 2009 budget cuts engineered by Tallahassee Republicans makes liars out of those same legislators’ words from the 2008 session. In an excellent piece of hold-their-feet-to-the-fire reporting, the Miami Herald’s Marc Caputo writes:
Lawmakers slashed $1.2 billion in spending Wednesday, reduced nearly every state program’s budget — and began breaking their own past promises.
In a May 2 news release headlined ”House Republicans Keep their Promise to Floridians,” legislative leaders boasted that the 2008-09 budget didn’t spend savings on day-to-day operations, gave more money to the Florida Highway Patrol and the Agency for Persons with Disabilities and didn’t reduce Childrens Medical Services, Healthy Start or the state crime lab.
But Wednesday’s newly trimmed budget reverses most of those commitments. It spends up to $1.6 billion in savings money, takes back the new FHP and APD money, and cuts the crime lab and services for kids.
The GOP’s answer comes from Rep. Dean Cannon: Nobody can expect us to keep the same commitments made before we knew the depth of the recession.
Speaker Ray Sansom and Rep. Dean Cannon during the budget-cutting special section. (photo by Meredith Hill/House of Representatives)
