Warning: Constant ABSPATH already defined in /home/flanews/public_html/wp-config.php on line 34
Capitol News Service » Blog Archive » Choosing Smokers Over Schools

Welcome to

Capitol News Service

Florida's Best Political Coverage on Television

 


 


 


Recent Posts

RSS Quote of the Day

  • Charles Baudelaire
    "Everything that is beautiful and noble is the product of reason and calculation."
  • Wilson Mizner
    "The best way to keep your friends is not to give them away."
  • Benjamin Disraeli
    "Silence is the mother of truth."
  • H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
    "Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness."

Choosing Smokers Over Schools

January 12th, 2009 by Mike Vasilinda

Governor Charlie Crist says he will look closely at budget cuts being made by lawmakers. The legislature ignored the Governor’s request to use 140 million from Indian gaming to offset school cuts. Lawmakers also hit trust funds, such as the Lawton Chiles Endowment harder than Crist would have liked. He wasn’t advocating a cigarette tax hike, but others were. It was dismissed without debate, so we asked if lawmakers were putting smokers ahead of students.

“I don’t know that they did. Education is one of the most important things that we fund around here,” Crist said. “The reductions I recommended were less than what we’re looking at. I’m going to look closely at that. Thank goodness, because of the Florida constitution, I have the opportunity to tweak some of these things. So we’ll take a close look at that.”

Some lawmakers say it is too late in the budget year to get any money from an increased cigarette tax, but if a dollar a pack levy were to have taken effect in April, it could have raised as much as 250 million dollars, or about half of the cuts being felt by public schools.

Posted in Education, Legislature, State Budget, State News | No Comments »

Leave a Comment

Please note: Comment moderation is enabled and may delay your comment. There is no need to resubmit your comment.

copyright © 2016 by Capitol News Service | Powered by Wordpress | Hosted by LyonsHost.com