Fla. Senate Rolls Out $70.7 Billion Budget
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) -- The Florida Senate Budget Committee has unveiled a $70.7 billion budget plan for the coming year and more than 20 conforming bills, a move that could once again stir discontent among a maverick group of senators who nearly derailed last year's session.
The measure unveiled late Friday by the Senate is about $1.5 billion larger than the $69.2 billion spending plan that the House approved Thursday.
One reason for the bigger bottom line is that the Senate wants to place the budgets of expressway authorities in Orlando and Tampa under legislative control. It also contains about 540 more positions than the House blueprint.
Both the Senate and House budgets boost state spending on public schools by more than $1 billion.
But the Senate is also dipping into an endowment set up by former Gov. Jeb Bush with proceeds from the state's landmark settlement with tobacco companies. The Senate wants to use $265 million from the fund to balance the budget.
There are also policy differences. The Senate would limit emergency room visits for Medicaid patients to six a year; half the limit included in House legislation. The upper chamber also doesn't call for cutting off subsidies to former foster children at 21 -- down from 23 -- a part of the House measure.
In all, about two dozen additional "conforming bills" were unveiled with the budget, less than a year after a group of Republican senators rebelled against their chamber's leadership and caused chaos on the last day of the session. The number of conforming bills this year is still smaller than those considered in 2011.
"The News Service of Florida contributed to this report."
