TALLAHASSEE – The Florida House and Senate moved ahead with dueling state spending plans Wednesday that approach $100 billion for the coming year – kicking off the Legislature’s second half where negotiations to settle budget differences will dominate.
The Senate approved its budget 40-0 Wednesday, while the House set its plan for a final vote. A move aimed at eventually steering $200 million toward cleanup at Manatee County’s Piney Point environmental catastrophe was added to the Senate budget and a cut to affordable housing around the state was reduced, in a handful of late-additions.
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But there are some winners, losers and in-betweens already becoming evident. Here’s a rundown:
Winners
Environmental programs: It’s apparently a coincidence that the massive leak from a wastewater containment pond at the old Piney Point fertilizer plant occurred with lawmakers readying to far exceed Gov. Ron DeSantis’ request for $625 million for improving water quality in the state. But lawmakers are coming in well above the governor’s level, with the Senate ready to spend $788 million on water and Everglades work.
Schools, teachers:DeSantis has floated using federal stimulus cash to pay $1,000 bonuses to teachers and principals. That’s likely to soon be embraced by the Republican-led Legislature. But for now, lawmakers agree to continue the second year of funding for a $500 million pay plan that will bring minimum teacher salaries up to $47,500. The Senate keeps $350 million in reserves and the House $334 million in case enrollment swells in districts where thousands of students have stayed away during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Businesses:The Republican-led Legislature is finally willing to bring Florida in line with most of the nation by making all online companies collect and remit sales tax on products they sell. While that could amount to $1 billion more in taxes coming from consumers – businesses basically will get the money, with a $713.5 million increase in unemployment compensation taxes that are now due, instead, covered by the cash.
That money will replenish the trust fund used to pay jobless benefits, which has been drained by Floridians who lost jobs in the pandemic. Once that fund is fully restored with cash, the $1 billion in additional online tax collections will then be steered toward cutting the 5.5% sales tax that companies pay for renting offices, warehouses and other space – making it 2%. That’s likely to happen in 2024 – giving companies another big slug of tax break.
State finances: Legislators once thought they were facing a $2.7 billion budget shortfall, threatening dollars for schools, health care and more. But thanks to $10 billion in federal stimulus funding from President Joe Biden and the Democratic-controlled Congress, and a recovering economy that lawmakers learned Tuesday will bring in $2 billion more in tax collections than expected, there’s now plenty of cash.
As part of this, both the House and Senate pump $5 billion into reserves, improving the state’s borrowing ability and rainy day funds.
Losers
Hospitals:Florida hospitals would lose $288 million in payments for treating Medicaid patients under the House plan and $251.2 million in the Senate version, as lawmakers justified the cuts by pointing to federal aid many of these facilities received early in the pandemic.
Universities: Similarly, Florida’s 12 public universities are lined up for deep cuts – a stunning $556.4 million reduction in the House and $217 million in the Senate. Again, Republican budget-writers said the rollback was warranted and follows years of steady increases in university funding.
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Affordable housing:The state’s trust fund for affordable housing programs is brimming with $423 million. But legislators are reaching in and redirecting more than half of that to a wastewater grants program and another program helping cities deal with sea level rise. Although low interest rates have driven up home prices and made lower cost rentals and homes hard to find, about $200 million looks destined for helping Floridians find affordable places – and $223 million will go elsewhere.
Up in the air
Classroom dollars: With the House already spending a big part of the $10 billion in federal stimulus – but the Senate holding it back – per-pupil funding is far different in the rival spending plans. The House would boost school dollars an average $181 for each student; but the Senate holds at the current $7,736 per-student average. But once those federal dollars are freed – along with the influx of new tax collections, the classroom bottom-line is likely to go up.
State worker pay: The GOP-controlled Legislature has long been resistant to pay raises for state workers. But the Senate is looking to hike the minimum wage for all state workers to $13 per hour, a $43 million spending item endorsed by Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, in advance of a statewide minimum wage increase approved by Florida voters last year.
The House doesn’t include the pay increase, so its fate will be settled in upcoming negotiations between the two sides. Still, the possibility of an across-the-board pay raise for state employees looks unlikely.
College and university students:Lawmakers are diving into the state’s financial aid plans. The Senate keeps Bright Futures scholarships at their current levels, but the House is advancing the idea of eliminating a $600 textbook stipend. Also under fire in the House are the state’s Effective Access to Student Education, or EASE grants, for students at private colleges and universities.
EASE helps 41,000 students now. But the House is looking to impose new eligibility requirements that critics say will eliminate about 13,000 students and bar 16 private universities from awarding EASE grants. The Senate goes in the other direction, actually increasing EASE awards from $2,841 to $3,500 per student.
John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on Twitter at @JKennedyReport
The post “Florida House and Senate move ahead with spending plans” Was originally published on www.heraldtribune.com
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