BRADENTON -- On Thursday, the Florida Senate passed a budget bill in a 33-6 vote along partisan lines. The budget includes cuts to higher education and health services, while increasing spending on education by $1 billion -- just under the approximate $1.2 billion cut in 2011.

The bill will now move on to a budget conference where members will attempt to reconcile it with the one passed by the House.

Sen. Mike Fasano (R-New Port Richey) managed to get an amendment passed that will help ensure prison privatization does not get tucked into reconciliation efforts by transferring money allotted for such operations back to state-run facilities.

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