Scott gives a gift fit for a Scrooge

On the precipice of the most empathetically generous of Western holidays, in the time of our most abundant good cheer, Gov. Rick Scott is hoping some of that will come his way.

At the lowest approval rating of any sitting governor, including Wisconsin and Ohio governors who are facing the possibility of recall elections, Scott has attempted to drum up some goodwill.

His olive branch to his embittered constituency — only one in four of which approves of his job performance — is more money for education.

“Education pays, and we clearly must find a way to increase our investment in Florida's students,” Scott said in a recorded radio address on Tuesday, Dec. 6.

To wit, Scott proposed a $1 billion increase in the education budget for the fiscal year beginning in July 2012.

That big ticket Christmas present is hard to shoot down after the education budget dwindled to a five-year low last year, but, perhaps conjuring a bit of the magic of the holiday season, Scott is hoping to play Santa Claus in more ways than one.

For one, he’s hoping we’ll forget the lumps of coal we’ve received for the last few years. Scott’s first education budget, which went into effect July 2011, slashed $1.3 billion from schools, a low-water mark not seen since the 2005-06 school year. That slashed budget dropped to a new low an education fund that had fallen every year since a high point in 2007-08.

That huge $1.3 billion lump of coal last year wouldn’t be balanced out by the $1 billion gift he’s giving us this Christmas. And what’s worse, an additional 30,000 students are expected to enter schools next year, making that gift even harder to spread around.

For two, he’s hoping we won’t look too deep into how he’ll pay for that present. It won’t be deficit magic. The state’s budget is currently $2 billion in the red for the coming fiscal year, and that’s a gap we legally have to balance out before that budget can be finalized.

The extra money for education has to come from somewhere, and that means one of two things: more taxes or more budget cuts.

Last week Scott announced what many in the state had most feared: His proposed budget would slash $2.1 billion from Medicaid funding to help pay for the education boost. Medicaid helps pay for medical expenses for low-income Americans.

To use another holiday metaphor: In the world of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” Tiny Tim would get a new book for Christmas, but he wouldn’t live to read it.

St. Nick wouldn’t ask us to kick a sick boy out of the hospital to pay for school, especially when there are plenty of more humane options. In a state with some of the lowest taxes in the nation, that sort of trade is unconscionable.

Less than two weeks before Christmas, Scott might be seeing Santa Claus when he looks in the mirror, but Florida’s poor and infirmed see Ebenezer Scrooge.