The Special Session debates began with the quick end to a Democratic attempt to add additional revenues. The House voted 70-42 to defeat a measure (HB 15-A) by Rep. Jim Waldman (D-Coconut Creek) that would generate up to $700 million by raising the tax on a pack of cigarettes by $1. Since the measure was not part of the official agenda, Waldman needed a two-thirds vote in the House to bring the bill to the floor. Rep. Zapata also has a similar measure to generate revenues from cigarette tax, which was not considered.
 
Instead, the budget-cutting plan of $2.3 billion, expected to be approved next week, includes raiding the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund, digging into the state's "rainy day" fund, nearly depleting some reserves, raising some traffic fines and borrowing for prison construction, in addition to approximately $1 billion in cuts.

The bills approved by the House and Senate on Friday will be sent for compromising with the House (conferencing) over the weekend and early next week (see list of conferees). The House and Senate budget blueprints differ mainly in how much they want to borrow from the Lawton Chiles Endowment, the state's health-care fund amassed from part of the late governor's lawsuit settlement with the tobacco industry. The two chambers' plans also differ about whether to cut spending on road-building and other transportation projects.

The House would tap the Chiles endowment for $400 million, relying more heavily on dipping into the state's budget-stabilization fund, while the Senate proposed taking $700 million from the Chiles fund and going lighter on the reserves. Overall, the Senate plan would cover only the current $2.4 billion deficit projection. The House package was $2.8 billion, with a $534 million cushion in case revenues fall short again in the second half of this fiscal year.

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink wrote to House and Senate leaders with a plea to spare the budget stabilization fund and Chiles endowment. "This penny-wise and pound-foolish idea would leave less than $270 million in a fund that totaled more than $2.1 billion seven short months ago," Sink said of the Chiles endowment. Stock market losses have made that fund plunge and Democrats have warned that this is the worst possible time to sell off assets.

Sink said the stabilization fund stood at $1.35 billion at the start of the fiscal year. Taking $600 million from it now, as the House proposes, would leave "only $72 million in our state's savings account, less than three-hundredths of 1 percent of our net general revenue collections last year."

Rep. David Rivera (R-Miami), one of the key appropriations chairs, said any borrowing from the Chiles fund would be repaid as soon as Florida receives economic-stimulus money from Washington.

 Proposed Budget Reductions to Children's Programs

Speaker Sansom Announces Revised Budget Conference Schedule

• Joint budget conference meetings begin Friday afternoon and will conclude Friday evening at 9:00pm.
• All unresolved issues will bump to conference chairs by 12:00 p.m., Saturday, January 10, 2009.
• All remaining unresolved issues will bump to the House Speaker and Senate President by 5:00 p.m., Saturday, January 10, 2009.
• The final conference report is expected to be delivered to members' desks by Sunday, January 11, 2009.
• The final vote for the conference report is expected Wednesday, January 14, 2009, after the mandatory 72-hour cooling-off period.