For Immediate Release
January 19, 2000

Governor Bush Unveils Taxpayer-Friendly State Budget Proposal

--Florida’s First e-Budget Accessible Online at www.flgov.com--

TALLAHASSEE – Continuing his commitment to Florida’s public education system, safer neighborhoods, our most vulnerable citizens, and Florida’s working families, Governor Jeb Bush today announced his Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2000-2001—the state’s first e-budget.

"Florida is poised with a great opportunity provided by the citizens of this state and a growing economy," Governor Bush said during a morning news conference at the state capitol. "Our redesigned budget format will result in a taxpayer-friendly budget process that is policy-based, priority-driven, information-rich and openly accountable. This budget allows us to fund our highest priorities and restore tax dollars to the people of Florida."

The Governor's $49.8 billion budget includes a 6.5 percent education funding increase and the second largest tax cut in state history.

In addition, the budget returns fiscal responsibility to state government by limiting general revenue spending growth to just 3.8 percent, and total spending growth to just 2.2 percent.

First Ever E-Budget

Reflecting the belief that to properly serve the people of Florida, state government must be at the forefront of the Internet revolution, today’s announcement unveils the first e-budget in Florida history. The e-Budget is dynamic, web-based and fully-hyper-linked placing Florida at the forefront of using technology to provide citizens with greater access to information.

New User Friendly Format

In addition to being available online in a dynamic, hyper-linked form, the Executive Budget format itself has been completely redesigned to make it more accessible and user-friendly. The primary goal of the budget redesign is to present Executive Budget information in a manner consistent with the Governor's aspiration of having a policy-based, priority-driven and fully accountable budget.

To enhance accountability in the expenditure of tax dollars, the redesigned budget format lists accountability criteria next to each line item in the budget for the first time ever. Another new feature is that this year's costs are compared to those recommended by the Governor for the next fiscal year. In addition, the budget lists activity or "unit" costs for performing a specific function or service.

Also, unlike the old budget format, the information in the dynamically formatted e-budget can be easily accessed in a variety of useful ways. For example, under the old budget format, because drug control spending took place in a number of state agencies, it was literally impossible to determine the state's total spending on drug control efforts. Under the new user-friendly budget format, the Governor's budget recommendations can now be aggregated into program areas. For example, one can easily determine how much the Governor is recommending on Drug Control and Substance Abuse, even though these dollars are spread across many agencies.

Governor Bush’s 2000-2001 Funding Recommendations

Highlights of today’s Executive Budget announcement include:

• A $720 million, 6.5 percent increase in funding for K-12 public schools.
• $578 million in new tax cuts, including savings for homeowners, growing businesses and working families.
• $3.3 billion in reserves to provide integrity, strength and stability to Florida's economy.
• An additional $134 million, a 60 percent increase in only two years, for our child welfare system.
• $154 million, including family premiums of $5.8 million, to serve all 260,000 Florida children eligible for KidCare, and another $60 million to provide or enhance dental care for more than one million children.
• An additional $136 million to serve our developmentally disabled citizens in our communities.
• An additional $12.1 million to meet the entire need of the estimated 6,214 seniors who are expected to request aging in place services this year, thus eliminating the waiting list for services.
• $442.3 million for drug control, a $35 million or 8.4 percent increase over last year, to confront both the supply of and demand for illegal drugs and to follow the initiatives outlined in the Governor's 1999 Florida Drug Control Strategy.
• $1.25 billion over the next 10 years to fully fund the state’s commitment to Everglades restoration.

Governor Bush also stressed the fact that the state will now have $3.3 billion in reserves to protect our schools and social services against future economic downturns. This compares to only $3 million in reserves prior to Florida’s last economic recession.

# # #