TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The House passed its $113.6 billion budget proposal Thursday, but House Speaker Daniel Perez warned negotiations with the Senate could be rocky, possibly leading to an extension of the legislative session.
“Today we have arrived at the turning point of our Session,” Perez, R-Miami, told members ahead of debate on the budget. “What happens in the days ahead will decide if we will be here another three weeks or another three months.”
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The regular 60-day session is scheduled to end March 13. But the House and Senate failed to agree to a budget on time last year as well, leading to an extra 45 days of session to resolve a dispute over tax cuts.
Perez intimated the House won’t buckle to Senate demands just to end the session on time.
“We will talk to anyone, anytime, about anything. We will never let personalities or past resentments impede our work,” Perez said. “But also, please understand, we will not be pushed by artificial deadlines. We will not sacrifice a little integrity, to gain a little time.”
The Senate is poised to pass its $115 billion spending plan on Friday.
For his part, Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, said he hadn’t seen Perez’ remarks but wasn’t daunted by the $1.4 billion gap between the chambers’ preferred budgets.
“I was encouraged, quite honestly, to be able to see the side by side of the House’s budget and our budget,” Albritton told reporters Thursday.
The chambers, though, have deep disagreements not just on total spending but whether to put stronger guardrails on how some funds can be spent, or even whether any money should be spent on certain programs.
The House, for example, puts no money towards Florida Forever, the state’s land acquisition and conservation program. But it has $300 million for the Rural and Family Lands program, which provides easements to farmers, allowing them to maintain agriculture activities and protecting the land from future development.
By contrast, the Senate has $35 million for Florida Forever, although the money is limited to easements only, and $200 million for the Rural and Family Lands program.
Another major difference is in K-12 education, where the Senate proposes $29.9 billion and the House has about $300 million more.
The Senate prefers to separate the $4.5 billion in projected costs for private school scholarships from the main funding formula for K-12 public schools, while the House prefers to include the provision in the traditional funding scheme.
For state workers, the Senate has a 3 percent salary increase for all state workers, plus another 2 percent for state law enforcement officers, prison guards, state firefighters and park rangers.
The House plan doesn’t have an across-the-board pay increase for state workers, but has targeted raises for state law enforcement, prison guards, park rangers and state attorneys.