It’s the halfway point of this year’s legislative session and the Florida House has released its plan for spending for the upcoming fiscal year. The house’s budget plan comes in at $74.4 billion dollars with education and healthcare getting the biggest share of the increase.
Highlights of the House spending plan include More than $670 million for performance-based pay raises for teachers, and the restoration of $300 million to public universities. The deficit-plagued Agency for Persons with disabilities also gets a boost. Talking with reporters Friday, House Speaker Will Weatherford and House Budget Chief Seth McKeel said this year’s budget was a bi-partisan effort:
“The minority party has been engaged in this process from the very beginning. From the very first day when we gave allocations out, we had members of the minority party in this room, being a part of this process and I think that’s something we haven’t seen," said Weatherford.
Not every sector saw an increase in spending. The Criminal Justice budget was cut, due to lawmakers removing Clerks of Courts from the budget. The process now moves to reconciliation. Both chambers have to agree on the numbers, and the Senate has its own spending plan.
