The House and Senate budget proposals released recently are $3.3 billion apart, but the greater difference in the two budgets is probably how they were made.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman J.D. Alexander, a Lake Wales Republican, showed up at the Democratic Caucus meeting Tuesday to highlight the differences between the appropriations in the two chambers.
The biggest difference between the two versions is $2.45 billion in funding included in the Senate proposal to fund the Department of Transportations work program request, which the House left unfunded.
The Senate also brings the states water management districts into its budget, adding another $1 billion, as well as 3,492 employees, while reducing the millage rate for those taxing districts. Funding for the clerks of court throughout the state -- about $453.1 million -- is also included in the Senate version.
Those items are funded in the House version, but are not included because the taxes for those programs are not collected and spent at the state level.
Alexander balked at the Houses approach.
Anybody thats collecting revenues under the state should be included. They just put it out of sight, out of mind. My experience with anything thats not included in the budget is it quickly gets off track, Alexander said Tuesday.
A $1.1 billion plan to include bridge authorities throughout the state in the Turnpike Enterprise is also included in the Senate version but omitted by the House.
Representatives working on the budget in the House noted that including those line items last year resulted in a deficit of about $3.75 billion, which the Legislature is not responsible for. The House budget includes greater reserves and keeps Florida on a more sound financial footing, they said.
"Generally speaking, the House budget provides sufficient reserves to weather altered fiscal forecasts and preserve our bond ratings. Unallocated general revenue, the budget stabilization fund, and the Lawton Chiles Endowment should provide a total budget reserve that exceeds $2.2 billion," said Katie Betta, spokesperson for House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park.
Ultimately, the budget battle will be about priorities, and while it's early in the process, each chamber thinks their budget is the best for the state right now.
"The House budget will prioritize the delivery of services to people (education, health care, and public safety) over the purchase of things (transportation, general government, and the environment)," Betta said.
The two chambers are clearly far apart in their budgets, but they must first get them through their own bodies before bicameral negotiations can begin.
Both the House and Senate will have scheduled marathon budget sessions this week, with the House meeting Wednesday and the Senate Budget Committee slated for nine-hour meetings Thursday and Friday.
Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
