Rick Scott To Ask For More Money For Public Schools

Gov. Rick Scott is expected to ask for more money for schools on Monday. His aides are calling his morning presser "an historic announcement," though he did this last year, and is expected to ask for less this time around.

Scott will be hitting up S.D. Spady Elementary School in Delray, where he's expected to outline his education budget recommendations.

Scott wants the state to up their spending on public schools by $542 million this year (he asked for $1.2 billion last year). In the last session, the governor was able to get lawmakers to approve $480 million dollars in teacher raises.

In all, Scott says, the budget request will hit the $19 billion mark -- all for schools.

The budget request will also include $2 billion for state colleges and $3.59 billion for the state university system.

Scott is also expected to ask for a 15-day sales tax hurricane holiday. The governor's administration says that the holiday would save Floridians about $20 million.

The tax holiday would basically give tax-payers a break when purchasing hurricane preparedness supplies, such as flashlights, tarps, and other necessary items to hunker down for an oncoming storm.

Of course, Florida has been spared in the recent years from getting hit by a major hurricane. So Rick Scott is either really good about being prepared, or he knows something we don't!

Both the school money and hurricane tax break request are part of Scott's recent giving back rollout and the fact that this is an election year and that he's virtually tied with a guy who is famous for quitting on his party is a total coincidence.

From the Palm Beach Post:

Scott has promised to recommend cutting taxes and fees by $500 million in his budget proposal, including a proposed sales-tax holiday on back-to-school shopping. But the bulk of the proposed savings, $401 million, would come from his plan to eliminate increases on a wide range of motorist fees that were approved in 2009 when Crist was governor.

Seriously though, Scott suddenly looks like the Grinch in the last two minutes of that cartoon. And we are all Whovians.

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