FLORIDA CUTTING SPENDING - TO REDUCE 3.5BILLION DEBT

Rick Scott (R-GOV), a former health-care executive who spent a record $78 million running for Florida governor, takes office vowing to cut the state workforce by 5 percent to help close a $3.5 billion budget deficit.

Scott, 58, also plans to lower pension costs by $1.4 billion and slash $1.8 billion in expenses for Medicaid, the government health program for the poor. The Republican, who’ll be sworn in today in Tallahassee, promises to reduce property levies by 19 percent and phase out the business-income tax over seven years.

(TO BALANCE THE BUDGET:
1.4billion pension+1.8billion Medicaid= 3.2billion + 0.3billion payroll = 3.5 billion reduction)

Florida’s projected 2012 budget gap has grown $1 billion from the $2.5 billion when Scott was elected in November.


Cuts in payroll will save $300 million a year, Scott has said. Florida has the lowest ratio of employees to population among states, according to its 2010 annual workforce report. The personnel system employs 109,020 workers, with an additional 58,777 at other state agencies such as universities and the courts.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-04/scott-takes-office-pledging-5-florida-workforce-reduction-to-cut-deficit.html