Rick Scott would bar thousands of transplant patients and seriously ill from medical care program.

madfloridian

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Tue Feb-08-11 01:14 AM
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Rick Scott would bar thousands of transplant patients and seriously ill from medical care program.

The St. Petersblog presents the highlights and the most controversial parts of Florida Governor Rick Scott's budget presentation. It's pretty scary stuff, reminiscent of what Arizona is trying to do.

Key highlights, controversial provisions of Gov. Rick Scott�s budget here

First off he wants to cut taxes by 2 billion dollars. That by itself makes one wonder where they will get the state's income.

There is a list of highlights first. Then a list of the most controversial. I will just post the latter to stay within copyright restrictions.

# Privatizing the state�s three mental health hospitals in Chattahoochee, Macclenny and Gainesville, savings also gained by eliminating the state workforce;

# Closing two prisons � a move Scott said was made easier by the state having 8,000 excess prison beds in the system;

# Saving close to $1 billion by limiting the state�s Medically Needy program to pregnant women and children, barring thousands of transplant patients and those with catastrophic illnesses from participating in the program;

# Cutting $1 billion from the state�s Agency for Health Care Administration, by imposing 5 percent cuts in state payments to hospitals, nursing homes and other health-care facilities, and eliminating annual cost of health care increases

Those last two are devastating. If that last sentence means the health care subsidy which is added to state pensions, then that will mean I will lost $150.00 a month. I don't have the rest of the context, but that is what it sounds like.

There is more. He is cutting public education to the bone...if he gets his way that is. The legislature is filled with a big majority of very conservative Republicans, so most likely they will give him what he wants.

Gov. Rick Scott's budget reduces education funding by more than $3 billion

Ricardo Garcia has been a Miami-Dade teacher for five years. He loves his work and is proud of what he does. But he is concerned about Florida Governor Rick Scott's plan to decrease education funding.

"The state keeps cutting funding for education," said Garcia "I think education needs to be a much higher priority. Today's students are our future. We need to be putting more money into education."

On February 7, Scott released a budget proposal that calls for $4.6 billion in cuts. The budget would mean a more than $3 billion reduction in funding for education. It would mean a $703 reduction in per pupil funding. Funding per student would likely fall to $6,200 compared to $7,306 in 2007.

I noticed on the news locally that there is concern being shown about what he is doing. That is unusual...nothing Republicans do is usually questioned here. One channel even said rather pointedly that Scott was presenting the budget before a Tea Party group. They emphasized it, and then looked odd.

People are getting rightfully concerned. Even teachers I know who voted for him are furious that he is now wanting teachers to give up 5% of their salary toward their retirement. That's like a 5% cut in pay as insurance costs skyrocket here.

They should be concerned.