Lawmakers claim budget deal

Vote pushed to Monday on $83B plan including less for Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office

TALLAHASSEE — Legislative leaders said they reached a state budget deal Wednesday, but they continued to keep details of the $83 billion spending plan a secret.

Although many particulars remained a mystery, some pieces of the agreement began to trickle out Wednesday after two days of private negotiations.

Senate President Joe Negron, RStuart, said he and House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes, have a budget deal, but they want to extend the 60-day legislative session by three days until Monday.

The overtime is needed because lawmakers failed to meet the deadline that would have allowed them to adjourn the session on time Friday. The budget is the only law they are required to pass each year.

The extension, which still must be approved by both chambers, gives them more time. Negron said the plan would be to give lawmakers the weekend off and have them return Monday to vote on budgetrelated items only.

The Senate agreed to a $1.3 mil-

lion reduction to the office budget of Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala. They will likely steer that money to prosecutors who take on capital-punishment cases transferred to them since her declaration that she would never seek the death penalty.

The Senate originally wanted to restore $569,000 to Ayala’s budget to sustain a human-trafficking division.

The chambers have agreed to spend $200 million to entice charter schools to compete with chronically failing public schools and another $200 million to pay teacher bonuses based on their SAT scores, but exactly how those funds will be allotted is still being negotiated.

Negron said money for a PTSD clinic at University of Central Florida, which was eliminated in a previous round of budget talks, is still in play.

Coming up with a formula to disburse $1.5 billion for a Medicaid program that pays hospitals for charity care remains a sticking point. How the funds are given out is vital to providers such as Florida Hospital and Orlando Health, because the budget also reduces Medicaid reimbursement rates by $651 million statewide.

The major budget areas that have already been agreed to include $20.4 billion for PreK-12 schools, or $7,221 per student, an increase of about $25 over the current year. Homeowners also won’t see a property tax increase, because legislators have agreed to cut back the tax rate required by local governments to fund education.

The budget also ignores nearly all of Gov. Rick Scott’s

“So I think at the end of the day, people are more interested about tax cuts and getting money back — they don’t find that giving out money to others is a wise thing.” Rep. Bob Cortes, R-Altamonte Springs

agenda.

His plan for $618 million in tax cuts was whittled to $75 million, mostly for a three-day back-to-school sales tax holiday. He wanted $100 million for tourism marketing but got just $25 million. He sought $85 million for business incentives and $200 million to jumpstart repairs to the Herbert Hoover Dike at Lake Okeechobee but got nothing.

Scott started a statewide tour in Lake Mary on Wednesday and urged supporters to call lawmakers and ask them to reverse course and adopt his agenda.

Scott blasted the process unfolding in Tallahassee.

“I haven't seen the final budget,” he said. “Have any of you? This is your tax dollars. That's not the way this should be done.”

Negron blamed the House for ignoring Scott’s priorities.

“It’s always easier not to do something than to actively fund something,” Negron said.

Corcoran, who led the push to cut Visit Florida and eliminate incentives, has borne the brunt of Scott’s anger, but he has also slammed House Republicans for going along with the plan.

Lawmakers have forged ahead anyway, unfazed by Scott’s hints of a possible veto of the budget.

“He’s telling constituents to call our office, and I’ve received no phone calls or emails on this,” said Rep. Bob Cortes, R-Altamonte Springs. “So I think at the end of the day, people are more interested about tax cuts and getting money back — they don’t find that giving out money to others is a wise thing.”

Corcoran and Negron have instead focused on getting their top priorities through. On Tuesday they put a property tax cut on the 2018 ballot, an action that was at the top of Corcoran’s agenda, and a bill to spend $1.6 billion to build a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee to store polluted water, which was at the top of Negron’s to-do list.

Frustrated rank-and-file members were still unaware of many of the unresolved budget details.

Democratic votes could be important to guard against a potential Scott veto, but Senate Democratic Leader Oscar Braynon of Miami Gardens would not say how he would vote on the budget.

“I can’t answer questions on the budget until I see it,” Braynon said.