Gov. Chiles' Son Bashes Officials Over Fund 'Raid'

By Lloyd Dunkelberger, Ledger Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE - A U.S. senator and the son of former Gov. Lawton Chiles on Monday slammed state lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Crist for sweeping $700 million out of a tobacco fund and using it to prop up the state budget.

The transfer occurred Monday, leaving less than $600 million in a fund that was set up after Chiles won a landmark $11.3 billion settlement from the tobacco industry. The Chiles endowment fund once totaled $2.4 billion.

The so-called "trust fund raid" was approved by lawmakers and the governor in a special session in January as they had to overcome a $2.3 billion budget deficit.

Lawton "Bud" Chiles III, the late governor's son, had threatened to sue over the transfer.

But he said lawmakers had also modified the endowment fund law, making a successful lawsuit unlikely.

"We decry this level of leadership," Chiles said. "It probably is legal. It certainly doesn't make it right. It's an ugly, ugly chapter."

By reducing the permanent endowment, Chiles said the state could lose from $50 million to $100 million per year in earnings that go to fund health care and social service programs, particularly for children.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson also sharply criticized the move.

"When you raid a trust fund, you raid the trust of the people," the Democratic senator said. "And when you do that, is it any wonder that it leads toward the cynicism we have in government today?"

Lawmakers, with the backing of the Chiles family, transferred $354 million out of the fund last year, meaning more than $1 billion has been shifted out of the tobacco fund into the general budget during the past two years.

Chiles cited the fund raid as part of a trend of "sleight-of-hand leadership" in Tallahassee, describing a series of issues, ranging from high school drop out rates to infant mortality, in which he said Florida needs to dramatically improve its efforts.

The Chiles foundation is joining with other groups in a nonpartisan, grass-roots organization - called the Worst to First initiative - to bring attention to the problems.

As lawmakers have struggled with a steep drop in state revenue caused by the economic recession, their move to tap trust funds, like the Chiles endowment, has accelerated.

In addition to authorizing the $700 million Chiles fund shift in January, lawmakers also took nearly $300 million from other trust funds to overcome a budget deficit.

The raids continued in the regular session later in the spring, as lawmakers took nearly $600 million from other trust funds to help balance the $66.5 billion state budget that starts July 1.

Among the biggest shifts were $120 million from a road-building fund and $135 million from a fund used to clean up leaking underground storage tanks.

Critics say while tapping the trust funds may help the state get through its budget crisis in the short term, it will undermine the state's long-term programs for children's health care, road building and environmental initiatives.

"This nonsense has got to stop," Nelson said.