State Government Budget Deal Expected to be Voted in on Friday

BRADENTON — Florida’s budget stalemate is finally over. The gridlock that divided Republican legislators and threatened a government shutdown came to a close on Tuesday with an agreement between the Florida House and Senate on how to spend the state's nearly $79 billion budget.

Leaders battled for months over health care, tax cuts and Amendment 1 implementation with powerful special interests jockeying for influence.

Legislators claim to have found a way for the state’s hospitals to be able to absorb the loss of federal LIP funding without expanding Medicaid. At the behest of Senate Republicans, more than $400 million in state tax money will be set aside to help hospitals fund indigent care treatment, despite resistance from House Republicans and Governor Rick Scott.

The final budget will include more than $400 million in tax cuts, $300 million less than Scott had been seeking. Public school spending will jump 3 percent, which falls short of Scott's vow to return spending to historic highs.

Health insurance premiums for state employees will remain the same, including the taxpayer subsidized rate now charged to the governor, legislative staff and other high-ranking state employees. Legislators will continue paying the amount charged to rank-and-file state employees.

The new budget sets aside more than $50 million for buying land as part of the Amendment 1 law, but to the chagrin of conservation groups who campaigned for the amendment, only $17 million will go to the state’s Florida Forever land conservation program.

Legislators will vote on the final budget this Friday, in accordance with Florida's 72-hour “cooling off” period that must occur before the final vote.