Jeff Atwater's tax pledge and the healthcare budget

Just a few months ago, Senate President Jeff Atwater told his chamber's budget committee "we will not extract one more dollar from the small business owners of this state or from any Floridians' wallet to accomplish the task."

Looks like hospitals don't count in the no-more-taxes pledge.

To help balance the budget and raise $55 million, the Senate's Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee proposed a 0.5 percent increase in the "sick tax" paid by hospital patients. The budget also cuts hospital, nursing home and HMO Medicaid reimbursement rates by 7 percent.

The budget also proposes expanding managed-care in Medicaid in up to 19 counties for a $30 million savings. The savings would come because of the elimination of the fraud-ridden pay-as-you-go (and bill-as-you-like) fee-for-service system.

There's also an estimated $22.7 million in savings through capping rates and cracking down on Medicaid fraud - savings that are not guaranteed. But, if the most recently announced fraud legislation passes, it's more guaranteed to give Atwater a good political platform (more here on that).

But this budget is only a first draft. And it's truly incomplete. The proposed budget doesn't include anywhere from $740 million to $1 billion in federal money that could likely arrive from Washington now that the U.S. Senate has approved a state Medicaid bailout.

Marc Caputo, Times/Herald Tallahassee bureau

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Comments

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It's just a continuing thing with Atwater, because he thinks none of you in the press pays real attention or connects the dots from one speech to the actions that come after. Wait until you see what he tries to get J.D. to do in the coming weeks to the budget - Doc Peaden is going to have to be close by to start writing prescriptions for J.D. in a hurry to keep him sedated, or maybe it would be a good thing if J.D. spoke his mind more often. Jeff is begging for support already on possible budget fixes and new 'fees' (yes that means taxes to a citizen, Jeff, don't be coy again.)

[First MA, Next USA]

"we will not extract one more dollar from the small business owners of this state or from any Floridians' wallet to accomplish the task."

This is a LIE, hello who the heck do you think hospital patients are???? Virginians?

Will medicare and medicaid patients be paying this tax? If so this is simply accounting fraud. Tax the tax collector.

Idiots....

Idiot.....

[Isobel]

Keep it coming R's--keep making the case on why we need national health care reform & driving up costs as you go.

[question]

question. Why don't the politicians close all the tax loop holes? Do you people realize there are no taxes on million dollar yachts, lawyer fees, cpa fees, dry cleaning, golf tees and many many more services? Is this because wealthy people use more of these services? You do know you pay tax on plumbers, electicians, auto repair etc and many many things that we the average people use? You do know that last year our leaders up the fees we pay by 2.2 billion? Isn't that a tax?

[The People]

Good questions, question. It appears that it's only considered a tax if rich people have to pay it.

We're still waiting for tax reform.

[notsosmart]

Yachts are taxable no different from cars, boats, airplanes. Dry cleaning is subject to gross receipts tax and the chemicals used are subject to sales tax and paid by the establishment. Yes, we do not pay taxes on services but if we did, you and I would pay for it in the end because the charges will be passed along to us in the form of higher prices when we purchase goods and services. We do not pay tax on plumbers or electricians who work on real property (buildings). Everyone pays tax on car repairs, yacht repairs boat repairs. The tax laws do not favor one class of people over the other. Call the local State Department of Revenue Office and check it out.