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Highlands Today

Budget Cuts Affect Schools, College

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

From left: Freshman Joe Delisle solves percentage problems on a math lab as his teacher, Kellie Zimmer, helps him and his classmate, Ben Farris, during their Pre-Algebra class at South Florida Community College recently in Avon Park.

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By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: January 29, 2009

SEBRING - Last year, schools were "held harmless" by budget cuts. This year, cities, counties, constitutional officers and human service agencies didn't feel the knife as severely.

With Florida facing a $2.8 billion budget deficit, every dollar is on the line this year: hospital and nursing reimbursements from Medicaid, prescription drug assistance, services for adults and children with disabilities. And schools.

South Florida Community College lost $700,000 in the current round of budget cuts, according to President Norm Stephens. "Which is exactly what we have been anticipating since July."

The college handled the loss by cutting discretionary and capital expenses, and freezing vacant positions, he said, so the college is doing without one vice president, staffers can't go to as many conferences, and supplies are running short.

Luckily for colleges, a bad economy is a great time for adults to go back to school. SFCC counted a 9 percent enrollment increase, Stephens said, and that brought up revenues.

At the school board office, it's even worse: the state Legislature, in its January special session, cut $1.7 million from Highlands County schools. Couple that with fewer students, and the school board is now finding ways to save $4 million, said Mike Averyt, assistant superintendent of business and operations.

More Equals Less

To raise revenues for the state court system, legislators raised penalties: the fine for speeding in a construction or school zone now costs $379. But that was counter-productive.

"They're just getting out of hand. They've gone so high, officers aren't writing the tickets," said Clerk of Courts Bob Germaine. Officers wrote 21,084 tickets in 2007, but only 15,830 in 2008.

"Revenues are down about $400,000 from last year," said Germaine.

Cities are also losing money.

"There will be about $40,000 less income," said Lake Placid Mayor Tom Katsanis. "We can cover that by freezing wages and watching what we spend."

But Katsanis has been cutting the entire 2.5 years he's been in office, and he knows that legislators will be cutting the 09-10 budget when they go back in session.

"It's going to be a long haul," the mayor said.

Highlands County Sheriff Susan Benton, Sebring Community Redevelopment Agency Director Pete Pollard, and Highlands County Visitor and Convention Bureau Tourism Director John Scherlacher said their departments aren't losing significant amounts of money from state budget cuts.

One reason why: county budget director Bernis Gainer forecast decreased revenues in 2008-09, so Benton said her department budgeted for less money.

Legislators are trying not to cut budgets from revenue producers. House Finance and Tax Chairman Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, said two weeks ago he'll focus on tourism marketing during the regular session.

Tourism provides 18 percent of the state's revenue. Visit Florida, which says it directly influenced more than 12 million visitors to come to Florida last year, was cut $10 million.

Scherlacher's agency is smarting, not from state budget cuts, but from the loss of tourism taxes, which are down 20 percent from the previous year.

With the exception of $5,000 advertising grants, Highlands County Visitor and Convention Bureau Tourism doesn't get money from Visit Florida, said Scherlacher.

But here's the quandary: if fewer tourists come to Highlands County from Michigan or Ohio or Canada, motels will rent fewer rooms, convenience stores will sell fewer gallons of gasoline, and real estate agents will sell fewer homes.

Tourism is such a big deal, retailers at Lakeshore Mall call to get information from the tourism bureau, said Scherlacher.

The Legislature cut funding for Arc, which serves people with developmental disabilities, but Gov. Crist vetoed those cuts.

"Arc worked so hard on this issue because people were definitely in danger of losing their residential homes," said Rhonda Beckman, executive director of Ridge Area Arc. Some adults had already lost access to group homes, and therefore can't avoid institutionalization, she said.

But more often, she said, disabled people are losing access to medical care, dentists, speech and behavioral therapists.

"Most people had to give up dollars for dental, that's the service they chose to lose," Beckman said. "Transportation took the hardest hit. Some people lost it all."

That means developmentally disabled adults get to go to adult day training - or their jobs at places like the Arc resale store - three days a week instead of five, Beckman said. "So they don't have meaningful activity the other days the week."

The Agency for Persons with Disabilities filed a lawsuit on behalf of William Layton Lyons, a 33-year-old Baker County man with mental retardation and other neurological and physical disorders; Francesca Correa, a 19-year-old Miami-Dade County resident who is autistic; and John Bodack, a 27-year-old Hillsborough County man who has a brain tumor that impairs his functional abilities.

"Because of these funding level cuts, plaintiffs face a loss of essential, medically-necessary services," said the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities via a press release.

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