Florida officially has a budget for the 2015-2016 fiscal year as of Tuesday morning, when Gov. Rick Scott signed the newly-passed $78.7 billion budget into law.
Scott immediately got to business Tuesday morning, signing the budget less than 10 minutes after he released his daily schedule of events.
The main highlight of the state budget was nearly $430 million in tax cuts, over $200 million of which includes a communication tax cut on cellphone and television bills.
Sales tax on college textbooks will also be eliminated for an entire year and Florida will implement a 10-day back-to-school sales tax holiday as part of the tax-cut package. The back-to-school tax holiday would start Aug. 7 and would be one of the longest back-to-school tax periods since the concept was introduced in 1998.
Despite the cuts falling short of Scott’s original $673 million tax-cut plan, Scott still seemed pleased by the final results of the budget.
“The tax cuts in this budget will help us continue our incredible momentum by strengthening our growing economy and providing more opportunities for families in our state,” wrote Scott in a letter to Secretary of State Ken Detzner Tuesday.
In addition to the tax-cut package, Scott also honed in on the state’s education budget, saying the state will invest in “historic levels” of funding for K-12 and state universities. The state will pump a record $19.7 billion into the state education system
Part of Scott's original proposal for education included record per-pupil funding -- his proposal would have ticked up the state's spending to $7,170 per student, a $50 increase from the previous pre-recession levels set during the 2007-2008 school year, but the final number for per-pupil spending ended up being $7,097 -- an increase of $207, 3 percent higher than last year’s spending.
Scott also exercised his line-veto powers, saying no to around $461 million in state spending, the highest veto numbers in recent years, though past governors had not had as high a budget. Former Govs. Jeb Bush vetoed $449 million in 2006 with a $72 billion budget while Charlie Crist vetoed $459 million in 2007 with a $71.5 billion budget.
Scott also vetoed the majority of “pet projects” thrown into the budget at the last minute.
House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, gave Scott a big thumbs-up for signing the budget Tuesday morning.
“I want to thank Governor Scott for swiftly signing the budget into law," said Crisafulli. "Our balanced budget keeps Florida's economy growing, provides record funding for our children's education, fully complies with Amendment 1, cuts taxes for families by $400 million, and will include even more than the $3 billion in reserves we anticipated. This is a good budget that responsibly meets the needs of Florida families.”
This is a breaking story. Check back for updates on what did and didn't make the cut in the 2015-2016 fiscal year budget.
