TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Senate is planning to consider a nearly $70.8 billion budget.
A Senate budget panel will take up the proposal when it meets on Wednesday.
The Senate budget is coming under fire because it includes $400 million in cuts to the state’s 11 public universities, including a large cut to the University of South Florida.
Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales and Senate budget chief, maintains that universities can absorb the cuts because they have adequate reserves. But USF President Judy Genshaft has called the proposed budget cuts “draconian.”
Alexander’s committee is also scheduled to take up a bill to immediately create a 12th state university. Alexander is pushing the idea because he says USF officials aren’t serious about helping its existing branch campuses including USF Polytechnic in Lakeland.
Source: Associated Press
