More money, more problems? Florida's budget battle belies chronic issues

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Florida is flush with cash, but its public workforce is running on empty.
The Florida National Guard has been helping staff state prisons for two and a half years. There's a teacher shortage and a nursing shortage. There are 1,800 troopers patrolling a state with 7 million vehicles and more than 140 million tourists per year.
All this in a state in strong fiscal health with ample reserves and a lean budget compared to other large states. Federal stimulus funds from the COVID-19 era, combined with inflation that boosted its sales tax-reliant revenues, padded its coffers. That helped lawmakers set aside massive reserves, about $17 billion in the current year.
For Republicans who have held the reins of the state for nearly three decades, it's a point of pride to have the lowest number of workers per capita and to have half of New York's budget with more people.
Such fiscal restraint – Florida's constitution requires lawmakers to pass a balanced budget each year – helps the state avoid the deficits and woes of Democratic-run states like Illinois and California. Republicans, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, revel in the contrasts to those states and boast of the state's fiscal picture.
'We've been running major, major budget surpluses, certainly over the last four years,' DeSantis said at a March 10 event in Winter Haven. 'We're spending, this year, less money than we spent last year … we have the lowest footprint of government workers per capita in the entire United States of America.'
But Republican legislative leaders, after deadlocking on budget negotiations that threw the session into overtime, are still trying to reach a deal on a final spending plan. The dispute, though, is over how much to permanently cut taxes to restrain spending growth, not over how to pay for pressing needs that have long languished as the state continues to grow.
House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, pushed for a sales tax cut to keep spending contained. Florida's budget has grown from $82.6 billion in 2019 to $118.6 billion for the current year. But Sen. Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, resisted the move, saying it would hamper lawmakers' ability to meet the needs of a growing state.
When they first attempted a compromise that included a 0.25% cut to the 6% sales tax, DeSantis nixed it by pledging to veto the plan. He feared cutting the sales tax would crowd out his push for massive property tax reductions.
Now, Perez and Albritton have a framework to resolve the budget differences, including a deal for $2.25 billion in permanent tax reductions, although the details of those cuts still need to be negotiated.
For Democrats, stuck in superminority status in the Legislature, the fracas over the budget doesn't address chronic issues facing the state.
'There's actually investments, real investments that need to be made to ensure our government is functioning properly and I just don't think that this is the time to discuss cuts when we haven't adequately funded our schools, our prison system, our unemployment system,' said House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa.
'It feels sometimes like the governor and legislative leadership don't really care how people are living; they just want to get what they want so that they can say that they got it. But how does that really help improve the lives of Floridians who are struggling to make ends meet?'
To be sure, Republicans in recent years have put some money toward addressing the issues, putting more money towards pay for prison guards, troopers, teachers and to educate and train nurses.
But the freeze on worker pay that lasted for years during and after the Great Recession left the state well behind the pay for competing industries in the private sector or other public entities. That led to massive turnover and shortages in vital areas. Inflation, too, has hampered efforts to provide competitive pay in several vital workforce positions.
In September 2022, DeSantis issued an executive order to place National Guard members in prisons facing critical shortages of guards, known as correctional officers. The Department of Corrections (DOC) has faced chronic issues of turnover and trouble recruiting and retaining officers.
A few years ago, the starting salary for a Florida prison guard was less than $33,000, and leaders at the DOC said they were competing with WalMart for workers. Lawmakers have tried to address the issue by giving pay raises to guards, boosting the starting pay by $15,000 in recent years.
The raises have helped alleviate the issue. The Tampa Bay Times reported the number of vacant positions at state prisons has dropped from 5,000 to 1,000.
But recruitment and retention problems have persisted, hampered by inflation, and staffing shortages could return if the Guard leaves. DeSantis issued four extensions of his order in the face of the problem, but the latest order is set to expire later in June.
In budget talks, the Senate has offered to set aside $30 million to pay for a DOC deficit related to staffing, while the House wants $53 million for overtime pay.
The Florida Highway Patrol, facing shortages of troopers, has relied heavily on overtime. During a March 11 meeting of a House budget committee, Dave Kerner – who heads the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which includes the FHP – told lawmakers his difficulty in retaining troopers.
'We spend an inordinate amount of money on overtime because of the low staffing we have at the Florida Highway Patrol,' Kerner said.
'Because of the lack of pay the lack of career development plan it is much more efficient for a trooper to come and work at the Florida Highway Patrol, get trained and then three years later leave to a better paying department and so we have to supplement that vacancy rate with overtime,' he added.
He was responding to Rep. Randy Maggard, R-Dade City, who blanched at the $10 million price tag for overtime for the nearly 1,800 troopers. Kerner said there were 288 vacancies, including 138 vacancies of sworn patrol officers as of March 1 at FHP.
Legislators have put more money into raises and bonuses for troopers in recent years, and DeSantis has called for pay raises of 20% and 25% for entry level and veteran law enforcement officers, respectively, including state troopers.
But the House has resisted the raises for FHP, as well as nearly $10 million to replace and upgrade part of FHP's fleet of vehicles.
A January report from the Florida Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, showed 3,197 teacher vacancies in public schools.
The number was down from about 4,000 the year before, showing improvement but union officials still were alarmed at the 16% rise in teachers in charge of classes without a certification in that subject area.
Prodded by DeSantis, lawmakers have put more money into teach salaries since he took office in 2019, raising annual pay by $1.25 billion per year. In ongoing budget talks, the House has offered to increase that by $91 million. The Senate prefers a $100 million increase.
Those increases, though, haven't kept up with other states, which have also boosted average teacher salaries, leaving Florida near the bottom for pay among state. Inflation has also eaten into the nominal gains.
Lawmakers also have tried to address projected shortages of nurses. A 2021 analysis by the Florida Hospital Association estimated a shortage of 59,100 nurses by 2035, as Florida continued to grow – and age.
But an association report from September showed progress – vacancies and turnover were down significantly compared to the prior year. And the Legislature had passed the Live Healthy Act, which put $716 million to boosting health care access and expanding the health care workforce.
In the latest budget talks, however, the House has sought to cut the $30 million boost to the Florida Reimbursement Assistance for Medical Education (FRAME) program in the Live Healthy Act. It offsets loans and expenses for those seeking degrees and licenses in the medical, nursing, dental and mental health fields.
Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at [e-mail]. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: In DeSantis' Florida, state budget booms as public workforce runs dry