House and Senate bicker over state budget

Legislators are divided by dollars and philosophy

TALLAHASSEE — Lawmakers traded insults instead of budget offers Monday as negotiations between the House and Senate broke down, raising the prospect of an extended or special session to reach an agreement.

Lawmakers have just eight days left to avoid the politically embarrassing prospect of going into overtime.

The impasse has emerged as Gov. Rick Scott, whose top priorities of funding for economic development agencies and $618 million in tax cuts depend on the outcome of the talks, left for Argentina on a four-day trade mission on Sunday. Scott spokesman McKinley Lewis said the trip will generate jobs for Florida and lawmakers are well aware of his top priorities.

The House and the Senate are $4 billion apart, but the divide is even wider in their philosophical approach to spending. The House’s $81.5 billion budget, a $1 billion cut on the current year, reflects House Speaker Richard Corcoran’s desire to eliminate projected shortfalls in 2019 and 2020.

Senate leaders, though, stress that Florida’s growing population means it must spend more on education, health care and the environment.

Before formal negotiations can begin between the two chambers, Corcoran, RLand O’Lakes, and Senate President Joe Negron, RStuart, must agree to topline numbers, known as allocations, across all areas of the budget. On Sunday, Corcoran proposed a “continuation budget” that would keep most spending levels at the current year, something swiftly rejected by Senate leaders as unworkable.

“A continuation budget is just putting our names on former legislators’ work. Aren’t we better than that?” Senate budget chief Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, posted Sunday night on Twitter.

Corcoran responded by comparing Senate GOP leaders with national Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Bernie Sanders.

“There are no limits to their liberalism,” Corcoran said of Senate leaders.

Latvala responded by saying that Corcoran was acting as if “everyone was a liberal but him.”

Despite the Senate’s objections, Corcoran is moving forward with a similar proposal, setting a committee hearing on Tuesday to hear the idea.

Corcoran has been the target of Scott’s anger for much of the session. Scott has run attack ads slamming Corcoran as a career politician who’s against jobs and tourism and claimed he’s putting his political career — and a possible 2018 run for governor — ahead of the state’s needs.

Even in areas where the sides agree, like spending more on K-12 schools, the two sides are far apart on how to get it done. Corcoran is adamantly opposed to using increases in local property tax revenues to help pay for schools, while the Senate wants to use rising property values to fund the increase. Although the tax rate would remain the same, Corcoran considers it a tax increase since property values are rising and homeowners would pay more.

Corcoran also is steadfastly opposed to borrowing money. That would kill Negron’s top-priority plan to use bonds to buy land south of Lake Okeechobee to prevent polluted water from seeping into state waterways. Negron’s plans for boosting higher education spending for research facilities and elite faculty also could be endangered if Corcoran insists on going without bonding to pay for construction and maintenance projects at colleges and universities.

The impasse over the budget is holding up other high-profile bills as well, such as regulations for medical marijuana and rewriting a gambling compact with the Seminole Tribe.

“When you look at Lake [Okeechobee], gambling, medical marijuana ... all those things are being included in the [budget] offers,” said veteran lobbyist Nick Iarossi. “Until we get a budget deal on allocations I’m not really hopeful of getting those other things done.”

A constitutionally required 72-hour “cooling off ” period before lawmakers can vote on a budget means they have until May 2 to reach a final agreement and finish by the scheduled end of session on May 5.

If they don’t, lawmakers would have to extend the session or return for a special session to have a budget in place by the end of the fiscal year, June 30, and avoid a government shutdown.

Despite the impasse, Iarossi said he believes they’ll reach an agreement on top-level budget numbers soon, if only to avoid comparisons to Washington. D.C., and congressional gridlock.

“Usually when you have these big meltdowns, it’s a sign they’re getting closer,” Iarossi said. “It’s in everyone’s best interest to get a budget done on time.”

Democrats, meanwhile, slammed Republicans’ gridlock as incompetence that ignores Florida’s needs such as the teacher shortage and protecting the environment.

“Republican leadership in both chambers have spent their time this session on useless posturing and messaging towards higher office instead of addressing the pressing issues facing our state,” House Democratic Leader Janet Cruz of Tampa said.