March 29, 2004
Tribune twists truth
Don’t believe the Tribune’s happy headline (“Proposed Spending Plans Benefit Colleges, Parks”), and don’t be distracted by their little list of spending line items that might come to area colleges.
Hillsborough Community College stands to get millions. So does the University of South Florida. There's also money set aside for cultural and historic preservation projects, as well as the court system and parks.The proposed spending plans set for debate in each chamber of the Florida Legislature this week contain a little something for everyone. But the competing budget proposals - $56.5 billion in the Senate and $57.6 billion in the House - paint two different pictures.
Much will change between now and April 30, when this year's legislative session is scheduled to conclude. But the initial proposals are considered a good guide to how communities will fare.
``It's a rosier budget picture than we had last year - we seem closer together,'' said Rep. Bob Henriquez, D-Tampa. ``But you never know.''
Keep in mind the The Tribune is a very conservative newspaper, a backer of both Jeb! and W, so their agenda is to make the Bush brothers and the Republican dominated legislature look good. Nice try, but Florida students are not smelling the roses:
State senators bemoaned another year of tuition increases for university students Thursday as they discussed a budget with hikes of 7.5 percent for undergraduate residents and up to 12.5 percent for out-of-state and grad students.Posted by Norwood at March 29, 2004 07:32 AMThe Senate's spending plan for higher education guarantees per-credit costs for Florida-resident university students would climb to $68.16. And that could increase if a university's board of trustees exercises its right in the bill to heap another 2.5 percent on its state-resident students.
"We're financing education on the backs of students by raising tuition and increasing fees," said Sen. Ron Klein, D-Delray Beach, during debate on the appropriations bill.
