The Florida Legislature has its $82 billion budget proposal ready to go. The official budget was delivered at 2:53 p.m., beginning the 72-hour “cooling off” period before the chambers will vote on the budget and send it off to Gov. Rick Scott for approval.
The full House and Senate are set to vote on the proposal Friday, meaning this year’s legislative session will end on time.
Once Gov. Scott receives the budget, he can choose to move forward with it or reject portions of the budget using a line veto. In order to nullify a line-item veto, state lawmakers would need a two-thirds vote of both houses.
The 2016-2017 budget includes a variety of big spending items, as well as some budget items which weren’t initially projected in the original draft.
Both chambers made several last-minute additions to this year’s budget, totaling around $123 million. That number is much lower than last’s year’s eleventh hour additions, which totaled nearly $400 million.
Thrown into the budget was a nearly $50 million incentive project for teachers which would give them extra money if they scored well on their college admission test. The Best and Brightest teacher bonus program is set to continue for another year, much to the chagrin of some state lawmakers who say teachers’ high SAT/ACT scores don’t mean they’re the most effective teachers.
Another last-minute addition included $25 million to reduce waitlists at the Agencies for Persons with Disabilities. Also thrown into the budget at the last minute was $7 million for a state law enforcement radio system.
The radios are produced by Harris Corp., which is based in the same county as House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island.
The radio addition might not even be totally useful for state law enforcement agencies, according to Sen. Budget Chair Tom Lee, R-Brandon.
"There was no request from the agencies for these radios. They don't want them.” said Lee. "They're going to get them anyway. We'll see if they take them...we spend a lot of money on things the agency doesn't ask for."
As for Rick Scott’s proposed $1 billion in tax cuts, the Florida Legislature didn’t make it that far for the 2016-2017 budget. State lawmakers only signed off on a $400 million tax cut plan this year, a proposal which falls incredibly short of what Scott promised.
Now that the budget has been submitted, the earliest both chambers could vote on it would be 2:53 p.m. Friday, the last day of the 2016 legislative session. Once the budget is stamped with the seal of approval, state lawmakers will gather in the Capitol rotunda, drop the hanky, and send the budget off to Gov. Scott.
