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Most legislative leaders acknowledge that the 2011 session will be one of the toughest on memory as lawmakers work to cut at least three billion dollars from the current spending level. Florida schools face perhaps the biggest cuts they have ever seen, although House Speaker Dean Cannon doesn’t believe they will be as large as proposed by the Governor.

“The Governor proposed, I guess, a ten percent cut to the FEFP. I would hope we could reduce that to a lesser cut, but it would be premature for me to opine about that. I’ve got a lot of confidence in our approps. folks,” Cannon said.

The legislative session begins Tuesday at 10 a.m., but it will be late March before state economists predict the actual amount of cash lawmakers will have to spend.