Legislative Affairs : Budget Status Report - Week #4 :

Budget Status Report - Week #4

Sandra Wilson, March 14, 2008

Both the House and Senate completed their proposed committee bills for the budget this week, so we now have a sense of how the issues are lining up and what reductions will likely be up for discussion in the budget conference.  The budgets still have to go to the to the full appropriations committees and then to the full House and Senate, so there could be changes before the conference.  This is what it’s looking like at this stage:

Reductions

Senate Proposals

The Senate General Government Appropriations Committee (SGGA) included the following reductions and fund shifts for FWC in their proposed committee bills:

• Take $1.6 million in permanent cuts carried forward from the hold-back reductions (spread across all divisions)
• Cut 3 vacant research positions ($183,737)
• Fund shift $1.2 million administration from General Revenue (GR) to trust
• Fund shift $657,489 other division GR to trust
• Fund shift $500,000 documentary stamp-funded law enforcement to license fees

The Senate also proposes an increase in vessel registration fees in order to avoid having to cut law enforcement positions and to be able to do a few other things as well.  The SGGA supports the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee recommendation to increase the fees 55%, based on the Consumer Price Index and proposes the increase be used to support the following:

• Release $3 million GR by shifting GR law enforcement costs to vessel registration in MRCTF (this avoids cuts to LE positions)
• Move $2 million marine mammal care funding (oceanaria & UF veterinary) from doc stamps to vessel registration
• Fund an additional $900,000 for law enforcement fuel costs from vessel registration
• Fund $1,550,000 and one employee for derelict vessel removal from vessel registration

House Proposals

The House is not supporting any fee increases and has had to take a hard look at cuts to balance the budget.  For FWC, cuts and fund shifts include the following:

• Cut 66 vacant law enforcement positions ($3.3 million)
• Take $1.6 million in permanent cuts carried forward from the hold-back reductions (spread across all divisions)
• Cut $210,000 alligator trapper stipend and re-direct revenue to GR
• Cut $2 million marine mammal care (oceanaria & UF veterinary) and re-direct revenue to GR
• Fund shift $2 million research funding from GR to MRCTF license fees
• Fund shift $1.2 million administration from GR to trust

In addition, the House proposes there be no new Florida Forever land acquisition funding or Everglades Restoration funding next year, and is not approving any CARL interim land management funding.  Normal formula-driven CARL funding will continue as usual.

Issues

The House and Senate were very conservative in funding new issues and generally only proposed those supported by directed revenue or grant funding.  Both sides supported our lake restoration request and half of our land management request.  The land management was reduced because the documentary stamp revenue source supporting it has declined significantly.  The House fully funded our mitigation park land acquisition, but not the Florida Forever.  The Senate funded Florida Forever, but cut the mitigation park land acquisition by $5 million to support a trust fund sweep.  Both sides supported the Gopher Tortoise conservation issue with the House fully funding it and Senate coming through with about half of it.

Both sides supported our artificial reef issue and the House provided an additional $1.1 million.  Both sides fully funded the Florida Boating Improvement Program at $6.6 million.  Derelict vessel removal was well supported with the House offering $2.8 million and the Senate providing $1.55 million.  Grant-funded issues were generally well supported by both and the Senate offered 26 grant-funded employee positions.

Pay issues will not be taken up by either side until the end of the budget conference, so at this point, the law enforcement pay issue has not yet been addressed.

Issues not funded by either side include the $2 million for Windley Key, the wildlife assistance program, law enforcement mobile computer support, and all of our maintenance issues (facilities, vehicles, rent, etc).

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Next week the House and Senate plan to take up the budget in their full appropriations committees, so there could be some changes at that stage.

The following chart shows a side-by-side of the FWC budget request and the House and Senate proposals as they currently stand.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
FY 2008-2009 Legislative Budget Request
As of March 28, 2008

Abbreviations

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