Social service chief berates state budget

BY MARY ELLEN KLAS, Miami Herald

Thu, Apr. 10, 2008

TALLAHASSEE --  In his long public career, Bob Butterworth has taken on Big Tobacco, Major League Baseball and a television psychic. As Broward County sheriff, he arrested crooks. As a judge, he sent them to jail. And as Florida attorney general for 16 years, he worked the Legislature to get the money to prosecute them.

But Thursday, in his latest role as Secretary of the Department of Children & Families, Butterworth met his match: an intransigent Legislature that is pursuing what he called the equivalent of taking out a ''contract on kids,'' with a budget that ''destroys'' the public safety net by cutting programs deeply rather than tapping the state's $1.3 billion emergency fund, or close corporate-tax loopholes.

''In my 40 years in public service, this is the worst year I've ever seen, the meanest I've ever seen,'' Butterworth told The Miami Herald as the House was completing debate on its $65 billion budget proposal.

''I've been a cop for a long, long time and what they're doing here is the Legislature is producing criminals, they're producing victims, and they're producing people who are going to be homeless,'' he said.

He rattled off pieces of the $4.5 billion in budget cuts in the House and Senate that he believes will have longer-term costs to the state than the immediate savings.

For example, a 200-employee cut to the food-stamp program will increase the wait time for the growing number of poor people seeking food stamps; slashing the number of child-protection investigators will delay response time for child abuse calls; and eliminating adoption subsidies for high-risk foster kids will likely mean 2,000 foster kids will have little chance of being adopted.

'Everybody says, `We care about adoption. We care about children,' but for these fosters kids who have been dealt a bad hand in life they end up losing out again,'' Butterworth said.

As one of Republican Charlie Crist's Democratic appointees, Butterworth is already a fish out of water. As the House debated its budget bill, Butterworth stood in an empty Capitol hallway waiting for the House budget committee to meet. He said he wished legislators would have a long, fruitful weekend when they return home.

''I hope they go home and explain to people what they are doing and why they are not using trust funds'' to fill holes in the budget, he said. He noted that Gov. Charlie Crist recommended the state use $400 million of a tobacco trust fund to offset some of the cuts and that another $1.3 billion sits untouched.

''This state has never been in as bad economic times as they are now and, if you don't dip into [trust fund accounts] and if you don't follow the governor's direction right now, I have a serious question about their future -- I don't care about what party they're in,'' he said. ``What are you waiting for?''

Rep. Dean Cannon, a Winter Park Republican, the designated House speaker in 2010 and head of the Economic Expansion Council, defended the House budget cuts, which he said gave priority to protecting ``health and human services and education over things like transportation and infrastructure.''

Butterworth, he said, is a passionate advocate. ''People never think there's enough government revenues to satisfy every worthy need that exists and it's always been that way,'' he said.

Butterworth's long resume includes time as Broward County Sheriff, assistant state attorney, county judge, mayor of Sunrise and head of the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

''This is not a good time to be in public office in the state of Florida,'' he said. ``I could not stand up and vote for this budget and I can't believe they can. They do not want to destroys lives.''