With barely three days left before lawmakers have to finalize the annual state budget if session is to end as scheduled May 5, Floridians still have very little idea what kind of compromise lawmakers are crafting behind closed doors when it comes to the most consequential reforms this year that affect K-12 public schools. Read…
After a day of anticipation, the PreK-12 Education Budget Conference Committee finally convened this evening at 6:15 pm. In an unexpected move, in the Senate Offer #1 on the budget, the Senate accepted the House position on the FEFP, thus closing any further negotiations on the FEFP. This agreement includes a rollback of the Required…
The House-Senate budget conference committee convened Thursday, exchanged pleasantries, and dispersed to begin working toward a compromise $83 billion spending plan for next fiscal year. Read More
Florida’s top two Republican legislative leaders, negotiating in secret over the past few days, have reached a sweeping deal on a new state budget and other high-priority items ranging from public employee benefits to building a reservoir to deal with toxic algae discharges. Read More
Today, Speaker Corcoran and President Negron published the allocations to be utilized by the various Budget Conference Committees and named the members of each Committee (please click HERE to see our chart listing the members and contact information for three of the Conference Committees having oversight of education related budget bills). The Conference Committees wasted…
As we have reported, Speaker Corcoran and President Negron have indicated that they had come to agreement on some major policy issues that would clear the way for these leaders to publish allocations for the Conference Committees to allow them to begin their work on resolving differences between the House and Senate budgets. However, as of…
State lawmakers reached a tentative deal on an $83 billion budget Tuesday that could end the session on time but could put them on a collision course with Gov. Rick Scott. A day after a stalemate threatened to derail the legislative session, Republican leaders in the House and Senate privately hammered out the broad terms…
In an unprecedented move, the House Appropriations Committee passed their “continuation” budget and related bills this morning. This continuation budget is basically the same budget passed for the current year with funding added for “workload” (for education, this mainly means funding to support student enrollment growth) and most funding removed for member supported local projects.…
It can be maddening to watch the Florida Legislature waste so much time and energy bickering over issues like the sliver of the state budget dedicated to economic development when more fundamental and far-reaching concerns deserve more attention. But legislators, to their credit, are on the verge of taking action on a problem that has…
A stalemate between the Senate and the House over allowing property taxes to pay for education will be the toughest issue to resolve before lawmakers agree on a state budget, the Senate’s top leader said Friday. Senate President Joe Negron plans to allow property taxes to rise with increasing land value, but Speaker Richard Corcoran…