Politico
By: Matt Dixon
TALLAHASSEE — The House and Senate both passed their proposed spending plans Thursday, setting the stage for final budget negotiations at the legislative session’s midpoint.
The two budget plans are roughly $100 million apart, a far smaller gap than in recent years. On the Senate side, the $87.2 billion proposed spending plan was quickly given final passage with little debate, but Democrats in the House teed-off on a host of
proposals buried in their $87.1 billion proposed budget.
The most reoccurring complaint from the chamber’s minority party was the sweeping of more than $180 million in funding from the state’s two housing trust funds, which are filled with cash from taxing real
estate transactions.
Affordable housing is generally not a top-tier issue debated in the halls of the Capitol, but that changed with Hurricane Irma. The storm decimated the state’s affordable housing stock, especially in the
Florida Keys, where the tourist-driven economy was already grappling with affordable housing shortages.
Nearly every Democrat who spoke out in debate against the House’s budget proposal highlighted the trust fund sweeps as a major point of contention.
“You tell me how it is fiscally responsible to sweep trust funds intended or specific purposes into the general revenue fund?” said state Rep. Sean Shaw, a Tampa Democrat also running for attorney general.
The House’s budget includes $64 million to develop additional rental housing in hurricane-impacted areas, and $45 million to produce all types of affordable housing in hurricane-impacted areas. The money
will be distributed using a federal formula that measures the state’s hardest hit areas.
The Senate does not sweep housing trust funds. Its budget includes $104 million for homeowner assistance programs, $104 million for local governments to finance affordable housing, and $100 million specifically
to help Hurricane Irma-impacted affordable housing.
There are a series of potentially high-profile budget differences that did not get much attention during the final budget debate.
The House is proposing $76 million for Visit Florida, the state’s mostly taxpayer-funded tourism marketing organization, while the Senate wants $50 million. Gov. Rick Scott wants $100 million, which could complicate final budget negotiations because it’s
one of his top budget priorities.
The two sides also disagree on land conservation funding. The House budget sets aside $8 million for the Florida Forever land-buying program, while the Senate’s has $150 million. The House does give $25 million for conservation easements through the Department
of Agriculture, an amount that is $5 million in the Senate through Florida Forever, a funding formula for 10 land conservation programs at state agencies.
The Senate also boosts funding for state universities and colleges, a top priority for Senate President Joe Negron, by $383 million, or 6.6 percent. The House has pitched an austere higher education funding plan, cutting colleges and universities by roughly
$280 million.
The two side are also at odds over a roughly $265 million chunk of funding that goes to inpatient hospital care. The biggest fight is over how to distribute the money, with the Senate in favor of distributing the funding to all hospitals through their Medicaid
base rate, and the House wanting to send the money to facilities where at least one-quarter of their patients are on Medicaid.
After the Senate floor session, Negron said that “momentum” is moving towards the House’s position.
One developing hurdle, however, was likely taken off the table Thursday when House Speaker Richard Corcoran announced that he would no longer tie his chamber’s controversial education package to the state’s pre K-12 budget. He told reporters that the bill,
which passed the House after hours of contentious debate, was its own conforming bill, which means it will get Senate committee hearings.
“In the Senate, we would prefer that bills be referred to committees,” Negron told reporters. “We still have plenty of time.”
The next step will be for leaders in both chambers to agree to budget allocations, or an agreement of how much funding they will devote to specific policy silos. That process, which begins next week, must be finished before lawmakers head into final budget
negotiations.
Both chambers passing their budgets on the same day is a good signal that they are on the same page and that remaining differences can be overcome. That coupled with the fact that the spending plan is so close in size means there is little of the budget
angst that generally begins to fill the Capitol as session winds to an end.
“We are ahead of schedule, more than a week ahead of schedule” Negron said.
Article last accessed here on February 12, 2018.