A day after House budget committees squawked about how paltry allocations from Speaker Dean Cannon were forcing  deep program chopping, the Winter Park Republican reshuffled the books.

Cannon found another $75 million to scatter among schools, higher education and the justice budget panels –maybe easing back on some of the axe-wielding. Cannon said he and House budget chair Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, decided to distribute the legislative lagniappe after seeing how budget subcommittees had done the right thing and focused on statewide spending issues.

On Wednesday, Justice Appropriations Chair Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City, bemoaned the cutting his panel was doing.

Wholesale spending cuts would eliminate one-quarter of the state’s more than 2,800 judicial assistants, leaving judges to do much of their own research, scheduling and brief-writing, to save $13.6 million. Judicial salaries also would be scaled-back, letting the state pocket another $11.4 million.

Rep. James Grant, R-Tampa, said the proposed cuts threatened the legal rights of Floridians.

“We are going to wind up with an umpire who can’t see the strike zone,” Grant said of the burden also being put on judges.

Palm Beach County schools Superintendent Arthur Johnson said he is considering a cut of 1,600 non-instructional jobs to deal with an expected “dramatic reduction in stimulus funding at the end of next year.”

In his latest “economic update,” Johnson cites the anti-spending political winds, embodied by the so-called “tea party” movement.”

“There are a growing number of American citizens, via the Tea Party movement, who are committed to cutting government spending and taxes,” wrote in his update.

A discussion of Johnson’s memo is underway here.

The U.S. Department of Education this morning published its application for a handful of states — including Florida — that need a special consideration to receive federal stimulus money for schools.

Congress wanted to withhold education money from states that have cut K-12 spending in recent years, but the U.S. DOE will approve the stabilization cash if states can prove that public schools still receive the same proportion of the state’s budget.

Commissioner Eric Smith said he hoped to return the application by the end of the week in order to get a ruling from the U.S. DOE by mid-April.

Here’s the link to the document the feds published. And we extracted the relevant part here.

Here’s our interview with Florida Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith this morning after a ceremony for “Children’s Week” at the state Capitol.

In this 5-minute podcast, Smith says he expects the waiver application for the state’s school-related stimulus money to arrive from the feds tomorrow morning. If that happens, he said the state would return the application by the end of the week. Smith said the U.S. Department of Education has promised a two-week turnaround on the application. (This story details what the application is expected to include.)

He also weighs in on the Senate proposal to fund K-12 schools this year with Seminole gambling money and a proposed constitutional amendment that would weaken class-size restrictions and increase state sales tax by a penny to pay for schools.

Listen to the podcast here (Or click here to go to our podcast directory)