A proposed $69.2 billion state budget, which pulls millions of dollars from health care programs and pours them into public schools, cleared the House on Thursday over opposition from outnumbered Democrats.

 A year after slashing classroom spending by $1.3 billion, the House is making an election-year reversal — looking to replenish $1 billion. But where ruling Republicans find the money fractured the House along partisan lines.

The measure was approved 79-38. With the Senate expected to complete its budget next week, the two sides are poised to spend the session’s closing month hammering out differences.

The Senate follows a similar course as the House – proposing $1.3 billion more for public schools, while sharply scaling back health and human services spending. But the approach frustrated Democrats, who said cuts ran too deep, and the school money is not enough.

“Florida may be a great place to visit,” said Rep. Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach. “But if you’re in the middle class, it stinks to live here right now.”

The deep, $1.3 billion budget cut imposed last year on Florida public schools would be largely offset with a similarly sized increase in classroom dollars proposed Tuesday by the Florida Senate.

Senate Pre-K-12 education budget chief David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, said he was looking restore school funding this election year after many districts absorbed thousands of layoffs and program cuts when per-pupil dollars were dragged to their lowest level in six years last fall, by budget-slashing lawmakers.

“It’s not 2005-6, but it sure is good,” Simmons said Tuesday.

The Senate has been slow to release details of its budget proposal and Tuesday mostly just dribbled out its education package. The House, by contrast, is poised to approve its full $69.2 billion spending plan later this week.

But for starters, the Senate has trumped the House in school funding. The House is recommending a $1 billion boost, which amounts to a 2 percent increase per-student. The Senate plan tops 3 percent and would bring per-student dollars up an average $192.70 — about $51 more than what the House is offering.

For Florida’s 28 colleges, the Senate proposed a 3 percent tuition boost. But for universities, the Senate appears to be more closely alligned with Gov. Rick Scott — who has dismissed a call from university presidents for higher tuition.

The Senate’s proposal calls for no base tuition boost. The House would give Florida’s 11 public universities authority for an 8 percent base increase that can be raised to 15 percent for universities, with approval from the State University System’s Board of Governors.

Even with the the Senate snub, universities could still seek  as much as a 15 percent hike from the board. But if Scott digs in, it’s likely the governor-appointed board may be reluctant to OK higher tuition.

The Senate proposal cuts university dollars by 4 percent — about double the cut leveled by the House. Both sides, though, look on track to continue a trend in which state dollars for Florida universities have dropped 24 percent since 2008.  Florida’s average tuition level ranks 45th in the nation — and administrators have been clamoring for more authority to shift costs onto students.

Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday that he’s ready to put the brakes on tuition hikes for college and university students across Florida.

“I don’t believe in tuition hikes,” Scott said. 

He added, “We have to do what the private sector has done, what every family has done. We have to tighten our belts to see how we can save money. That’s the first thing I want to focus on: How do we reduce our costs, rather than how do we raise tuition.”

Last week, 300 Florida university students rallied at the Capitol to oppose what looks like another push by the Legislature to approve a tuition increase. Tuition at five Florida universities has climbed 60 percent over the past four years, while students at the other six public universities have weathered a 45 percent boost in that time.

The presidents of the University of Florida and Florida State University earlier this month urged a House committee to give schools authority to begin charging higher tuition for science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs — the STEM degrees that Scott says are the path to employment in the evolving economy.

The House budget committee Wednesday looks set to approve another potential 15 percent boost in university tuition as part of its $69 billion state spending plan. College tuition would climb 8 percent, under the plan.

Florida’s tuition has been climbing even as state support for universities has dropped 24 percent since 2008, shifting more school costs onto students and their families. The state’s tuition remains the 45th lowest rate in the country.

But while universities have been cutting programs to reduce costs, Scott thinks more reductions can be made at the administrative level.

Six-figure salaries paid to high-level administrators seem to have endured Florida’s prolonged economic slump. Over the past year, they’ve become a rallying point at campus protests.

“I want the cost of living in this state to be lower than other states, I don’t want it to be higher than other states,” Scott said. “Would you think that way in business? You’d wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, gosh. The other business, it costs them more to do things, so let me raise my prices.’ You don’t do that. You figure out, how can we be efficient.” 

Florida university students could face another round of 15 percent tuition hikes next fall, under a spending plan unveiled Tuesday by the House Higher Education budget committee.

Gov. Rick Scott, who has been pushing schools to expand their science, technology, education and mathematics programs, saying STEM degrees are what employers are seeking. But Scott, who has questioned the spending practices at state universities, notably didn’t call for a tuition increase in his $66.4 billion state budget proposal, released last month.

Committee Chair Marlene O’Toole, R-Lady Lake,  acknowledged that the proposed tuition hike will prove controversial — and may face open opposition from Scott. But with state support for universities slashed by 6.2 percent — following a pattern that has seen public funding reduced 17 percent between 2007 and 2010 — tuition’s role has grown.

Since Florida universities were authorized to boost tuition by as much as 15 percent, beginning in 2007, the cost for students and their families has climbed 60 percent. O’Toole pointed out, however, that Florida’s average $5,626 annual tuition is still among the lowest in the nation.

Colleges could increase their tuition by 8 percent next year, under the House proposal.

The House’s push to meet Gov. Rick Scott’s demand for $1 billion more in school spending came into sharper focus Tuesday, as a budget panel unveiled about $300 million in health and humans services cuts aimed at freeing-up dollars for classrooms.

Emergency room visits would be limited to a dozen per-year for adults in the state’s Medicaid program, while chiropractic and podiatry services for some 34,000 mostly low-income and elderly Floridians would be eliminated under the House’s approach, which cleared the Health Care budget subcommittee on a 10-4 vote, with Democrats opposed.

Chairman Matt Hudson, R-Naples, said House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, had hinted that cuts in many programs would be needed to meet a goal of pumping more money into public schools this election year — blunting a $1.3 billion cut schools weathered last year.

“He certainly is going to make sure we spend money on people over things,” Hudson said. “And students are certainly a priority for the speaker.

“ I would anticipate that when the other budgets roll out, you’ll see they’re a collective package in that we will be very aggressive in making sure that not only are we meeting the health care needs, but we are meeting the education needs.”

Democrats, however, urged that Republican leaders find more deft ways to make budget reductions. Eliminating some routine health coverage completely for some of the frailest Floridians can result in the state absorbing costs elsewhere.

Several college students who said they received $1,200-a-month from the state as part of the Department of Children & Families’ ‘road-to-independence’ program for youngsters who have been in foster care, argued against another House plan to cut the program’s maximum eligibility age to 21 — down from the current age 23.

The change would save about $10 million, but eliminate 657 people from the program.

Those who testified Tuesday before the committee recalled childhoods spent cycling through foster homes and schools before setting themselves on a path to college and a professional future only with the help of mentoring and the program’s cash.

“It’d be absolutely devastating to end these services at age 21, just when people are getting their feet under them,” said Andrea Cowart, 22, of Dunedin, who attends St. Petersburg College.

Cowart said she was in foster care for almost seven years and attended 10 to 15 schools. She had dropped out of high school her freshman year and had a child at age 17. Motherhood, she said, changed her course — but only with the financial help from the state program.

“It made what was impossible, possible to me,” she said.

House Speaker Dean Cannon and budget-writers revealed some broad brush strokes Thursday for how the House will craft next year’s state spending plan — embracing Gov. Rick Scott’s call for a $1 billion boost in public school funding, but rejecting his call for deep cuts in Medicaid payments to hospitals.

Cannon’s release of spending allocations for budget subcommittees also may heighten pressure on the state Senate, where Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, and budget chief J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, have talked about possibly delaying final action on a budget until later this spring.

Cannon, though, also seemed to try to find a middle ground — assuring lawmakers in his budget memo that “contingencies” could be included in a final spending plan that made changes if the economy brightens, or worsens.

 ”These contingencies will provide self-executing direction on how to enact reductions or provide additional spending authority, without accessing reserves, should circumstances change,” wrote Cannon, R-Winter Park, who is a lawyer, by profession.

Alexander, who declined to say much about the House approach, said the Senate did plan to move ahead with its budget work. But he said leaders there were still concerned about economic shifts that might effect the spending plan, which takes effect July 1.

Still, Alexander said the House’s idea about building in proposed cuts as contingencies, “is another option to deal with this concern.”

While Scott built his $1 billion public school increase by cutting almost $2 billion in Medicaid spending, the biggest share coming in cuts to hospitals, Cannon outlines a different course.

He said the House wouldn’t go along with Scott’s plan to overhaul immediately the way hospitals get reimbursed for treating poor, elderly and disabled Floridians. But Cannon hinted that deep reductions in general government, transportation and environmental programs would be deployed, instead, by the House to find school dollars.

The House also pulls close to $300 million from state trust funds for use elsewhere in the budget – double what Scott proposed diverting from these accounts. But the House has to set aside as much as $100 million for tax breaks in the coming year, topping the roughly $35 million the governor has proposed. 

The Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union and a powerful ally of the Legislature’s outnumbered Democrats, were cool to the House’s proposal. Andy Ford, the FEA president, said the proposed school increase doesn’t come close to offsetting the $1.3 billion in cuts imposed by Scott and lawmakers last year.

Scott’s proposal would boost average per-pupil spending by $142, to $6,372, which is still well below the record $7,126 reached in 2008, before the recession forced deep cutbacks. Classroom spending currently is at its lowest level in six year.

“Every child in Florida deserves a high-quality neighborhood school – and it’s within our means to provide one,” Ford said. “But we must understand that investing in our children pays the highest dividends…This proposal puts a small bandage on the gashes inflicted with last year’s budget. We need to do better.”

Dean Cannon covered the tall tasks facing lawmakers in balancing the state’s budget and completing once-a-decade redistricting, but in convening the 2012 House, the speaker moved higher education up on his priority list.

Cannon said he didn’t have a clear direction. But setting the state’s 11 public universities and two dozen colleges on a new course should be one of the session’s goals. Clarifying the role of the State University System’s Board of Governors is one area that needs work, Cannon said.

“Since we have contributed to the muddying of the waters, it is my hope that the Florida House can play a constructive role in clarifying them,” Cannon said. 

 Cannon said the House Higher Education Committee will hear Friday from the presidents of Florida State University and the University of Florida, followed next week by testimony from leaders of the states’ nine other universities.

 In his opening speech to House members, Cannon acknowledged that legislation may not emerge this year — but that a dialogue should begin.

The speaker’s pitch on higher education follows a year in which Gov. Rick Scott made news by saying universities should be producing more graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, ridiculing those who study such subjects as anthropology in the process.

Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, also played a central — critics called it divisive — role in advocating for the University of South Florida’s Polytechnnic campus in Lakeland to become an independent 12th university. The move was delayed by the Board of Governors, helping prolong a bitter fight between Alexander and USF administrators.

“Our State has reached a moment in our history where we must find new pathways for success,” Cannon said.  “The undeniable fact is that the stability and diversity of our state’s economy are inextricably linked to the maintenance of a strong and dynamic system of higher education.”

Opening Florida to casino gambling would be good for the state’s economy, but cutting Medicaid spending to find more dollars for education is a bad idea, a poll released Tuesday by Quinnipiac University shows.

The survey of 1,412 registered voters also shows Gov. Rick Scott is still struggling with low approval ratings.

Fifty percent of respondents say they disapproved of his job performance, compared with 38 percent who like what he’s doing — a slight improvement over a similar Quinnipiac poll in September.

Despite Scott saying that the state’s improving joblesss rate is a sign that things are looking up in Florida, 34 percent of those questioned said the economy is worse than when the governor took office last January, compared with 16 percent who say it’s better. Another 45 percent said the economy is about the same.

With the 2012 Legislature opening Tuesday morning, Quinnipiac’s survey covered the landscape of issues expected to drive the two-month session. Among those topics covered, legislation that would open the state to casinos and clear the way for as many as three ‘destination resorts’ to open, likely in South Florida, was generally supported.

Peter Brown, Quinnipiac’s assistant director of polling, said the survey showed allowing Las Vegas-style casino gambling won  narrow, 48-43 percent backing from voters. But by a wide, 61-33 percent margin, voters said casinos would be good for the state’s economy.

“Creating Las Vegas-style, non-Indian casinos in Florida gets a narrow thumbs up from the voters,” Brown said. “But there are interesting partisan, gender and educational and age differences.”

Registered Republicans narrowly oppose casinos, 48-46 percent. Democrats support them 51-40 percent. Independent voters also look ready to place their bets, backing an expansion of gambling by 53-39 percent.

Scott has proposed as much as a 40 percent reduction in the millions of dollars the state pays hospitals for treating poor, elderly and disabled patients through Medicaid. In turn, Scott would use that cash as the base for a proposed $1 billion increase in funding for public schools — a turnaround from the $1.3 billion cut to schools he signed into law last year.

But the Medicaid cut is rejected by those in the Quinnipiac survey, with voters by a67-24 percent margin rejecting Scott’s approach. Still, those surveyed also don’t appear very optimistic about whatever comes out of the 2012 Legislature.

The poll showed that by a 48-39 percent split, voters think the state budget is unfair to people like them. By a 49-33 percent margin, they also disapprove of the way the Legislature is handling its job.

The survey has a 2.6 percent, plus-or-minus, margin of error. The survey of 1,412 voters was coducted Jan. 4-8.

With the Legislature opening next week, Gov. Rick Scott used his weekly radio address Friday to set some mileposts for lawmakers.

While legislative leaders say they’ll be mostly focused on patching up the state budget and once-a-decade redistricting, Scott has his own trio of priorities.

The second-year governor wants lawmakers to approve a jobs creation package — presumably his mix of economic incentive spending and tax breaks; a reduction in auto insurance rates — likely some form of personal injury protection changes;  and a $1 billion increase in public school spending.

“2011 was a great year,” Scott said. “According to the latest figures, Florida added more than 130,000 jobs.  I will work every day to make sure that we continue to add jobs. I look forward on working with the Legislature in the upcoming session.”

Here’s Scott’s address: Podcast_2012-01-06

Gov. Rick Scott ripped the Obama administration Friday for rejecting Florida’s application for Race to the Top education dollars, deriding the decision as stemming from the state’s refusal to accept the money “with strings attached.”

Nine states were authorized by federal officials to share $500 million in grant money aimed at accelerating  improvements in early childhood programs. California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington state will get the dollars to make strides in pre-kindergarten education.

Scott said he suspected Florida was turned down because the state did not commit to continuing programs after federal dollars expired — a move he said was aimed at avoiding making state taxpayers pick up the tab for new government services.

 ”When Florida’s application was submitted for the grant in October, we made it clear that we would not accept grant money with strings attached, additional state spending obligations, or requirements that created new burdensome regulations on private providers,” Scott said.

 ” We stuck to our principles, and unfortunately our insistence against irresponsibly using one-time dollars for recurring government programs did not win the favor of the administration in Washington,” he added.

Race to the Top, the centerpiece of Obama’s education policies, has proved a thorny issue for Republicans. In the GOP presidential field, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a staunch opponent, while Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, is a fan.

The funding approach also supports many of the early-learning measures promoted by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and state legislative leaders.

Still, Scott defied tea party activists in October when he submitted the state’s application.  But he was lured by the prospect of winning as much as $100 million in federal cash for the state — in a year when he wants to pump-up Florida K-12 spending by $1 billion.

Scott insisted, though, that he wouldn’t go along with federal officials dictating terms for how the state spent the money.

Florida won a $700 million federal grant under the program last year, in its second attempt at landing the cash. But Scott has pushed back millions of dollars in aid tied to Obama’s health care overhaul. The state’s Tea Party Network, also openly demanded in the fall that he steer clear of the Race to the Top effort.

But for all the line-in-the-sand drawing, Scott in September agreed to some conditions in advance of the application.

At Scott’s urging, the Legislative Budget Commission accepted a $3.4 million federal grant under the Affordable Care Act to provide home visiting services to at-risk families. Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, was among those urging against the move, saying the program’s mission was murky, and he feared it could result in the state facing additional costs.

A pair of Palm Beach County Democrats are teaming with a Central Florida Republican senator to sponsor legislation aimed at teaching school children about the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Reps. Lori Berman of Delray Beach and Joe Abruzzo of Wellington are sponsoring the measure (HB 1027) requiring that Florida schools provide instruction on events surrounding the attacks and their longer-term impact on the nation. Sen. Thad Altman, R-Viera, plans to sponsor the proposal in the Senate.

“The best defense of our nation is through the education of our children. We must teach the history of 9/11 to avoid a recurrence of these tragic events,” Abruzzo said.

Berman said events leading up to and unspooling after that day are a key part of the nation’s history. She likened the need for school children — who were infants, or born after the attacks — to understand the day’s meaning, the way others recall Pearl Harbor, 70 years after that attack.

“It is vital that our students, representing the next generation, understand the meaning of what transpired,” Berman said.

After slashing education spending by $1.3 billion earlier this year, Gov. Rick Scott is now asking school superintendents to help get his $1 billion budget boost for public schools passed. And he reiterated his vow to veto any budget that “does not significantly increase state funding for education” in a letter to school superintendents sent today.

Scott included the $1 billion education increase in his $66.4 billion election-year budget proposal after hearing from Floridians that they want more spent on schools, he said. Scott also said that education is the cornerstone of his plan to bring more jobs to the state.

“If you support the budget I am proposing, please let your legislators know. Now that I have presented my budget recommendations, it’s their turn to listen, just as I have done. Please join me in advocating for the children of our state and Florida’s economic future,” Scott wrote.

More than 30,000 new students will enroll in Florida public schools, requiring an additional $200 million over current spending, Scott wrote. And school districts are facing a $220 million reduction in ad valorem taxes, meaning lawmakers will have to pump nearly $500 million more into education to break even.

His plan would bring average per-pupil spending in Florida to $6,372, a $142 increase over the current year but still well below the $7,126 high in 2008.

“As I have listened to the challenges described by teachers, parents and administrators during the past few months, all have urged me to increase the state’s commitment to education. That is my plan, and I ask for your help in making that plan a reality for Florida’s students,” Scott wrote.

The governor once again threw down the gauntlet to lawmakers, many of whom have balked at his plan to beef up education spending by squeezing $2 billion out of Medicaid payments to hospitals.

“Every educator, student, parent and business leader should know: I will not sign a budget from the Legislature that does not significantly increase state funding for education,” Scott wrote.

A push in the Florida House to do away with physical education in middle schools will be a heavy lift across the hall.

A House committee on Tuesday approved a measure (HB 4057) by a 9-6 vote that would strike the requirements that middle school students take P.E. The American Heart Association is trying to beat back the proposal, saying that more than 30 percent of Florida children are obese and more than 62 percent of all Floridians are fat.

Senate President Mike Haridopolos hadn’t heard about the bill when we asked him this afternoon what he thought about doing away with PE in public schools.

“Who said that? Who filed that one? I love P.E.!” Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, said.

The bill doesn’t have a Senate sponsor, and, judging by the president’s comments, may not get one.

“That’s not on my to-do list at this point. My wife’s a doctor and I was a high school and college athlete. I believe P.E.’s a good thing,” he said.

Florida’s debt level dropped this year for the first time in at least 20 years — helped along by Gov. Rick Scott’s veto of some $135 million in university construction borrowing and a two-year halt on environmental land buys, the governor and Cabinet were told Tuesday.

Florida’s debt level slid to $27.7 billion this year — down $500 million from last year’s record high. That’s a sharp contrast from a year earlier, when $2 billion in additional borrowing pushed state debt to double what it was in 2000, according to the state’s Division of Bond Finance.

Ben Watkins, head of the division, said the state still will have to spend $2.2 billion in next year’s budget just to cover payments on the IOUs. That’s actually up $100 million from last year because of timing of the state’s bond issues. But refinancing of existing debt has saved the state millions this year, Watkins told Scott and the Cabinet.

Fifty-seven percent of what the state owes stems from school, college and university construction. Scott last year, took steps to rein-in that spending with his veto of university building projects, including $3.2 million for new roofing and other work at Florida Atlantic University.

 The only significant university construction work Scott allowed to become law was $35 million for work at the University of South Florida Polytechnic’s Lakeland campus, which was advanced by Senate budget chairman J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales.

Scott, who was elected with strong tea party support, has been outspoken in his push to stem Florida’s rising tide of red ink. 

Since former Gov. Jeb Bush took office in 1999, ushering in a dozen years of Republican leadership, Florida’s borrowing has climbed by $12 billion. Roughly $10 billion more debt is expected to be issued through 2019, to cover currently authorized programs, the bond finance division said.

Public school and university construction projects, roadwork and environmental land purchases have driven much of the borrowing, records show. Major tax cuts enacted during Bush’s two terms and recession-forced budget reductions also helped steer lawmakers away from a pay-as-you-go approach in many spending areas.

The economy, however, has helped change the state’s spending policies. The Florida Forever land-buying program, which formerly used to borrow $300 million annually to preserve environmentally sensitive lands, has been mostly on hold the past two years.

The state’s gross receipts tax, which supports school construction projects, also has been declining. The tax is built on levies imposed on utilities — but the economic downturn and societal shift away from land-line telephones has dramatically reduced the dollars available for campus construction.

With six-figure administrative salaries common across Florida’s 11 public universities, State University System Chancellor Frank Brogan said Tuesday that schools must offer payouts that keep them competitive nationwide.

But he conceded that there may be some “aberrations” at budget-strapped state universities. Brogan, who spoke to House Democrats on Tuesday, has little authority over salaries, which are set by individual schools.

“I think administrative salaries are competitive,” Brogan said. “Like most other salaries, if you look at other states, their administrative salaries are considerably higher. In some states they might be lower…But we try to find a market-based administrative salary schedule that can attract and maintain the best and brightest in those jobs — without going overboard.

“Now, in some particular instances, people could be accused of going overboard,” Brogan said.

The Florida Legislature has cut public funding for universities by 17 percent between 2007 and 2010. But tuition has climbed 15 percent annually since 2007 — with another 15 percent expected to be sought next year. The financial burden is shifting from state taxpayers to parents and students, Brogan conceded.

Administrative salaries, though, seem to have weathered the budget upheaval.

According to a review of university salaries by the Post, the University of Florida has a four-person roster of registered lobbyists  whose cumulative pay is $657,872.  The University of Central Florida defends its vice-president salaries as ranging from $198,900 to $269,777, while  median salaries at other large Florida universities range from $203,694 to $315,000.

UCF’s two registered lobbyists earn $194,466 and $143,223, respectively, records show.

“What we need to guard against is making very large assumptions about salary and compensation packages based on some of the aberrations that we might see,” Brogan said.

Gov. Rick Scott defied tea party activists Wednesday and submitted an application to the Obama administration for ‘Race to the Top’ funding, making the state eligible for as much as $100 million in federal money for public schools.

Scott, though, put some conditions on whether he would accept the money. Basically, he doesn’t want federal administrators to dictate terms to the state on how it should be spent.

“The Office of Early Learning, together with my own staff, worked hard to structure a Race to the Top application that requires no additional state spending obligations—current or future, no requirements for future legislative action, and no new government programs that unduly burden state taxpayers and commit state dollars to federal unfunded mandates,” Scott said. 

 He added, “To be clear, Florida will only accept these grant dollars if the award comes back with no strings attached.  Additionally, if during the process of implementing this grant, the state finds unexpected new regulations being placed on private businesses, I pledge that Florida will not move forward with implementation.”

Florida won a $700 million federal grant under the program last year, in its second attempt at landing the cash. But Scott has been pushing back millions of dollars in aid tied to Obama’s health care overhaul — and was urged by the state’s Tea Party Network, also to steer clear of the Race to the Top effort.

But for all the line-in-the-sand drawing, Scott last month agreed to some conditions in advance of the application.

At Scott’s urging, the Legislative Budget Commission accepted a $3.4 million federal grant under the Affordable Care Act to provide home visiting services to at-risk families. Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, was among those urging against the move, saying the program’s mission was murky, and he feared it could result in the state facing additional costs.

The amount of cash Florida lawmakers will have on hand to build next year’s state budget looks likely to drop from earlier predictions by between $1.4 billion and $1.7 billion, according to estimates unveiled Tuesday by state economists.

The state’s Revenue Estimating Conference, a gathering of analysts representing the Legislature, state Department of Revenue and Gov. Rick Scott’s office, are meeting most of the day to update their latest forecast of tax collections.

 The amounts settled on Tuesday will guide the budget proposal Scott will present later this year to the Legislature — and go a long way toward shaping the spending plan lawmakers put together when they begin the 2012 session in January.

The House budget committee last week said that because of declining tax receipts and rising costs — particularly in public schools and Medicaid spending – that a shortfall of $1.1 billion to $2.2 billion was expected, likely resulting in another round of program cuts and employee layoffs next year.

Tuesday’s revenue forecast looks likely to bolster those storm cloud predictions. Sales tax collections — which provides about three-quarters of the state’s general revenue — is the root of the state’s problem.

In a faltering economy,  sales tax receipts are expected to be down as much as $881.4 million next year from the estimating conference’s forecast earlier this year. Sales tax dollars also are off earlier estimates by as much as $257.5 million in the current budget.

At a Capitol crowded with what he called 500 of “friends and neighbors” from the Florida Panhandle, Niceville Republican Don Gaetz was designated Monday as the next president of the Florida Senate.

Gaetz will assume the job following next year’s elections — should the GOP retain its Senate majority, a likely development. Republicans now hold 28 seats in the 40-member Senate.

Gaetz, first elected in 2006, is the wealthiest member of the Legislature.  A retired co-founder of Vitas Healthcare Corp., a hospice care provider, Gaetz devoted most of his acceptance speech to touting plans for reviving Florida’s faltering economy.

Gaetz recalled the words of Winston Churchill, anguishing over “what a waste to be a great man in small times.”

“One thing is sure. These are not small times,” Gaets said. “They are hard times. But they can be great times.”

On track to succeed Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, following the November elections, Gaetz encapsulated his future leadership in three promises.

He vowed to bolster the state’s political ethics, make education meet the state’s economic needs, and turn Florida into a “cradle of common sense solutions,” that can draw businesses with smaller government, low taxes, and reduced regulations.

“In an angry sea of economic chaos, Florida can become a safe harbor,” Gaetz said.  

Another multi-millionaire who has pledged to fix Florida’ s economy, Gov. Rick Scott, said he liked what he heard from Gaetz, a former county school board member and superintendent.

“He understands that we really have to do the right thing with regard to education. Science, technology, engineering and math are clearly going to be key to growing our state. It’s going to be a real key to getting companies to move here,” Scott said. “I like the challenge that he set down.”

The Florida Education Association sued Wednesday to overturn the new state law that ends teacher tenure and introduces merit pay based in large part on how students perform on standardized tests.

The state’s largest teachers’ union said the measure — approved by the Republican-ruled Legislature and the first bill signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott — violates constitutional collective bargaining guarantees. Employment terms are to be decided by negotiations between teachers and school districts — not by state lawmakers, said Ron Meyer, attorney for the FEA, which filed the suit on behalf of six school teachers.

“It strains credulity that people in Tallahassee,  over in the Capitol, know better than the people on the ground,”  Meyer said.

Andy Ford, FEA president, said the new standard — approved in a mostly party-line vote, with legislative Democrats opposed — “totally changed the teaching profession in Florida.”

“It denies teachers the constitutional right to collective bargaining,” Ford said.

The merit pay legislation requires that 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation be based on student achievement on tests — including the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and other standardized exams, most of which must still be developed by state and local educators.

Under the bill, current teachers would retain existing pay schedules and contracts — even those spanning multi-years. They could lose their jobs, though, if they drew two subpar annual evaluations within three years.

Teachers hired after July 1, however, are limited to one-year contracts and would draw raises only if rated “effective” or “highly effective.”

Former Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a similar bill last year. But during last fall’s governor’s race, Scott made ending teacher tenure and enacting merit pay a central portion of his campaign, with the FEA throwing in heavily behind Democrat Alex Sink.

After months of promising action, the state’s largest teachers’ union looks ready to bring Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-ruled Legislature to court in an attempt to overturn a measure that creates a new merit pay standard and ends teacher tenure.

The legislation (CS/SB 736) was the first bill signed into law this spring by Scott. But it also marked was the culmination of a increasingly bitter clash between Florida Republicans and the Democratic-allied Florida Education Association, a struggle whose roots are deep.

FEA President Andy Ford and other leaders of the teachers’ group plan to outline the lawsuit they plan to file during a news conference and media call tomorrow.

The merit pay legislation requires that 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation be based on student achievement on tests — including the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and other standardized exams, most of which must still be developed by state and local educators.

Under the bill, current teachers would retain existing pay schedules and contracts — even those spanning multi-years. They could lose their jobs, though, if they drew two subpar annual evaluations within three years.

Teachers hired after July 1, however, are limited to one-year contracts and would draw raises only if rated “effective” or “highly effective.”

Former Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a similar bill last year. But during last fall’s governor’s race, Scott made ending teacher tenure and enacting merit pay a central portion of his campaign, with the FEA throwing in heavily behind Democrat Alex Sink.

The FEA is already squared off against the Legislature, having earlier this summer sued to overturn a proposed constitutional amendment put on next year’s ballot to lift the state’s more than century-old prohibition on tax dollars flowing to religious institutions.