TALLAHASSEE, Fla.
Gov. Charlie Crist has made final $1.1 billion in state budget cuts but he did so grudgingly and without fanfare.
Crist fixed his signature Friday to the budget revision bills sent to him two weeks ago by the Legislature. They enact tuition increases at public universities and colleges and cuts to the state’s water supply projects, among other things.
“Though fully aware of the state’s revenue projections and the need to reduce expenditures, I have specific concerns with some of the reductions,” Crist said in a letter accompanying the bills. “I want all concerned parties to understand that piecemeal approaches to our higher education system are unacceptable to me.”
Lagging home sales and a sagging economy forced lawmakers into a special session earlier this month to deal with a $1.1 billion budget shortfall in the state’s $71 billion plan.
Health care for the poor is among the areas suffering the biggest cuts in the revised budget. Programs that serve Medicaid patients lose $233.8 million; nursing homes that care for them lose another $164.5 million.
Crist reversed his earlier position, signing a bill that allows state universities and community colleges to raise tuition by 5 percent beginning in January.
