And Florida expects federal stim money waiver?

This is plain stupid. As Florida begs for a stim money waiver, "A legislative panel on Wednesday approved $3.8 million in new spending to help cut a backlog of 90,000 applications for concealed weapons permits that one top official attributed to Florida's economic woes." "Panel OKs money to cut Fla. gun permit backlog". See also "Florida approves hire of 61 temporary workers to reduce gun permit backlog".

Background: "Florida can't keep up with concealed weapons permit requests". See also "Economy blamed for increase in concealed weapon permits in Florida" and "Gun Sales, Permit Applications Jump In Florida".

The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs will hire 61 temporary workers between April 1 and June 30 to process the gun applications in Tallahassee and eight regional offices, but most of the money will go for criminal background checks.

The surge of applications began in November, said Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson.

"A lot of it has to do with the fact that the economy is having some tough times right now," Bronson said. "The amount of crimes are beginning to increase. I believe that people are feeling a little threatened."

Bronson said crime always increases when times are bad. He cited the case of a concealed weapons permit holder who shot and killed a shotgun-wielding man who tried to rob him at an Orlando car wash last month.

"There can't be a police officer standing by every single citizen," Bronson said. "We all know that."

Panel OKs money to cut Fla. gun permit backlog

OCALA — School districts statewide were told by Florida’s commissioner of education on Wednesday to brace for a 16 percent reduction in funding for the 2009-10 school year — one third more than expected.

That would mean Marion County Public Schools’ budget shortfall would rise from $33 million to nearly $44 million and virtually cripple education for the entire county, as well as all other School Districts statewide.

And to top it off, it remains unclear how much money — if any — Florida schools will get in the way of stabilization funds, earmarked to help school districts stave off more layoffs. Of the four areas of stimulus funding, stabilization dollars are by far the most important because they are aimed at helping school districts stave off further teacher layoffs.

"Honestly, this is really too ugly to talk about right now," said Superintendent of Schools Jim Yancey, who winced Wednesday during a telephone conference with the Florida Department of Education.

Florida leaders counting on more than $3.5 billion from a massive federal stimulus package to shore up the state's education budget learned Thursday there could be a catch. The state may not qualify for the money because the Legislature has cut its schools budget too much.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed an $819 billion economic-recovery plan Wednesday. Under that bill, money in a special "state stabilization fund" would go only to states that could fund schools for the next two years at the levels they had in the 2005-06 school year.

But the state is below that threshold. In fact, school funding coming directly from the state is now lower than it was in the 2004-05 school year. With Florida's budget shortfall for next year ballooning toward $4 billion, it's not clear it could meet that requirement.