Leaders in the House and Senate agreed to a $69 billion, no-new-taxes budget following an 11 p.m. conferencing meeting Monday. After the mandatory 72-hour waiting period, it will head to a vote Friday.
Lawmakers have proposed to take $69 million from the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority and add it to the state budget.
Early Monday morning, budget negotiators agreed that the authority should turn over the money it was banking on for an anticipated road project. Now the project might be dead, and the head of the authority is most unhappy.
The state taking our money for a statewide purpose isnt consistent with our mission, said executive director Joe Waggoner.
Although for a fifth straight year lawmakers have declined to provide state worker pay-raises, union officials Monday said they were satisfied with lawmakers decision to back away from a proposed pay cut.
The House accepted a Senate proposal that will require some 27,000 mid-level managers, lawmakers and other workers pay a modest amount for health coverage for the first time. Public employees across the state who are part of the states pension plan would also have to contribute a small portion of their paycheck to stave-off a looming multi-billion dollar deficit.
Many years ago, I was surprised to receive a letter from an old friend, saying that she had been told that I refused to see campus visitors from Africa.
At the time, I was so bogged down with work that I had agreed to see only one visitor to the Stanford campus-- and it so happens that he was from Africa. He just happened to come along when I had a little breathing room from the work I was doing in my office.
With more than 70 bills on the calendar when it convened, the House kicked off the last week of the legislative session by meeting all day Monday and focused on redistricting measures that Floridians will vote on in November.
The House voted to add a new constitutional amendment measure on redistricting, joining two other measures already on the ballot. Introduced by Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, the amendment would have the state follow existing federal guidelines when creating new congressional and legislative districts. The measure passed on a 74-42 vote.
Leaders of planning and environmental groups from across the state met at the steps of the Old Capitol on Monday in a last-minute effort to push the House to reauthorize the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA). The DCA manages growth and development and land use across the state.
Lawmakers have backed away from a demand that applicants for the merit-based Bright Futures Scholarship Program file for federal financial aid.
During a weekend budget conference, the House and Senate removed from a proposed Bright Futures overhaul the requirement that scholarship hopefuls file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly known as FAFSA.
While Republicans are busy pointing fingers at each other over abuse of party credit cards, you hear barely a peep out of the Democrats.
Why is that?
Photo iStockPhoto.com/Andresr
Renewable energy legislation is being hailed by Florida's big investor-owned utilities (IOUs) -- but not so much by small-scale producers who fear they'll be cut out of the action.
