House, Senate pass dueling $80B budgets
TALLAHASSEE — School funding increases, business taxes drop, hospital funding is slashed and thousands of disabled and elderly patients will remain on waiting lists under competing budget plans passed Thursday by the House and Senate.
However, plenty of differences remain in the $80 billion spending plans that will have to be worked out before March 11, the end of the legislative session. And how those are resolved will have an affect on the pocketbooks of homeowners and the bottom lines of business owners.
Here’s a look at the key issues that likely will be the subject of budget talks between the two chambers:
Tax cuts: The House approved a tax cut plan Thursday that reduces revenues by nearly $1 billion over three years, meeting Gov. Rick Scott’s goal. Most of the cuts come in the tax on commercial leases that businesses pay, but sales-tax
holidays for back-to-school items, technology items and a one-year extension of the moratorium on college textbooks are included, too.
The business rent tax cut has advanced in the Senate, but that chamber hasn’t yet passed a comprehensive taxcut package to match the House’s.
There’s no money in either budget for a proposed UCF campus downtown, as yet, but lawmakers say there is still time to add it.
Education: Both chambers’ budgets include about $20.3 billion in education funding, but there’s a variation in how those numbers are reached. The House relies on more property tax revenues for its 3 percent increase in school funding over this year. That clashes with the Senate’s desire to use $254 million in state funds to reduce reliance on local taxes. House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, has said he’s open to the idea but wants to ensure the tax reduction actually goes to homeowners and isn’t just a boon to school districts’ budgets.
There is no money in either budget for a proposed University of Central Florida campus downtown, but Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, has said there is still time to add it.
Economic development:
Another top priority of Scott’s is a $250 million fund for Enterprise Florida, the state’s public-private economic development arm that pays out tax money to businesses that create jobs. The Senate includes all of the funds in its budget, but the House has none. Both budgets fund Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing wing, at $80 million, a $5 million boost over the current year.
Health care: Both chambers are trying to grapple with a $400 million cut to hospitals stemming from a phase-out of a federal Medicaid program known as the Low Income Pool, which pays hospitals for charity care.
Funding for Planned Parenthood, however, could be a flash point. Several Democrats said they could not vote for the House version be- cause it bars funding for the women’s health clinics that provide abortion services. The Senate budget provides funding to alternative women’s health centers that don’t provide abortions. Democrats also voiced frustration that of the 60,000 elderly and disabled residents on waiting lists for state health care services, the budgets passed Thursday would only reduce that number by a few thousand.
Environment: To the chagrin of some environmental groups, lawmakers continue to use Amendment 1 money for administrative costs such as salaries. Voters in 2014 passed Amendment 1, which calls for minimum funding levels for land acquisition, springs restoration, beach renourishment and other environmental projects. Four environmental groups sued the state last year, claiming the funds weren’t spent according to the law, but leaders of both chambers say their budgets abide by the amendment.
Criminal justice: Although both budgets use some money to reduce Florida’s backlog of 13,000 untested rape kits, the backlog could still take years to deplete. Also, the chambers take differing approaches to improving prison safety after a series of inmate deaths in recent years. The House would hire more prison guards, while the Senate would fill vacant positions to reduce overtime and reduce guardprisoner ratios.