State Senate Approves Budget, House Yet To Vote
TALLAHASSEE (CBS4) - The Florida legislative session is roughly at its midway point and the budget appears headed for an earlier than expected resolution.
On Thursday the state's Senate approved their 69.8 billion spending plan in 33 to 6 vote. House members are expected to vote their plan later in the day. It will then be up to each Republican controlled chamber to resolve their differences during the remaining month of the legislative session.
Under each budget bill state spending would drop by about $4 billion. Both budgets make cuts in nearly every area of state spending including education, health care and environmental protection. They also would effectively cut public employee wages by about 3 percent in most cases and increase tuition for college and university students.
The Senate's budget is $3.3 billion higher than the House's $66.5 billion plan. The bottom line variation is due mainly to bookkeeping differences.
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