Budget impasse resolved, but session to extend
TALLAHASSEE (AP) – House and Senate leaders agreed on preliminary but critical budget issues Tuesday after 10 days of behind-the-scenes talks, but the deal came too late to finish Florida’s regular legislative session on time Friday.
As a result, the Republican-controlled Legislature will extend its usual 60-day session for another week to complete its work.
Senate President Jeff Atwater said his agreement with House Speaker Larry Cretul includes a $1-a-pack increase in cigarette taxes, a Senate proposal that wasn’t in the House’s original budget plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1. They also agreed on a $30 million pay cut for state workers, which is significantly less than the House’s proposed reduction of about $140 million.
The two leaders split the difference on higher education, agreeing on about a $90 million spending cut. That’s about half as much as the House wanted to cut. The Senate had proposed keeping spending community college and university spending where it is this year.
“I’ll call it a decent agreement,” Cretul said. He said both chambers retained key priorities – the Senate favoring revenue increases and the House deeper spending cuts.
Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, and Cretul, R-Ocala, failed to agree, though, on how much gambling should be expanded to generate additional state revenue. They will leave it to a joint conference committee to resolve those differences.
The Senate has proposed the more ambitious gaming plan. It includes a compact with the Seminole Indians that would let the tribe operate full-blown casinos, including roulette, craps and blackjack. The House version would allow the Seminoles to have only slot machines.
“There’s no predestined place” on gaming, Atwater said. “There’s no bottom line on that.”
Other conference committees began negotiating budget details later Tuesday and they will continue their work through Friday. Any differences that remain unreconciled then would be kicked up to House and Senate budget chairmen. Any issues they cannot resolve by noon Sunday will go to Cretul and Atwater for a final decision.
The Legislature will finish all non-budget work Friday, Cretul said.
The House has passed a $65.1 billion budget bill while the Senate plan would spend almost $550 million more.
The private talks between the leaders angered minority Democrats, who complained about being left in the dark. Cretul promised that would change as conference committees begin meeting.
“I want to make it perfectly clear that this will be an open process – an open process,” Cretul told the House.
The speaker also ordered his conferees not to put into the budget any pet projects, known as member projects – the equivalent of earmarks on the federal level – without his approval.
Atwater said he agreed to back off of a plan to include cigars in the tobacco tax. The Senate’s plan would have taxed small cigars the same as cigarettes and large cigars at the rate of $1 an ounce.
The cigar tax proposal had drawn objections from Florida’s largest-in-the-nation cigar industry. Cigar makers said it would have resulted in layoffs and forced some companies out of business or to leave Florida.