Capital Report

Florida’s employment picture keeps getting brighter.  The state released its preliminary jobless estimates for April today and Ryan Benk reports record Florida tourism numbers during the first quarter are being credited for the positive jobs picture.

Every year after the Florida legislature passes its budget, a group called Florida TaxWatch goes on a turkey hunt.  Regan McCarthy reports group singles out budget items, called budget turkeys that may have been slipped into the budget at the last minute or didn’t get a complete review. 

Lawmakers left one big issue unresolved at the end of their annual session: How to take care of some four-million uninsured Floridians.  House and Senate leaders clashed over whether to accept federal money to insure a million of those people and didn’t reach a deal. Now as Lynn Hatter reports, there’s a growing chorus of voices calling on Governor Rick Scott to call a special session.

The one thing lawmakers are required to during their yearly legislative sessions is pass a balanced budget.  At 74-and-a-half-billion dollars, the budget is bigger than it’s been in recent years. Lawmakers say that means there’s a little more room to fund some of their biggest priorities. But, what many Democrats say is missing from the budget is a healthcare expansion that will use federal dollars available under the Federal Affordable care Act. Regan McCarthy has more….

The Florida Legislature is set to adjourn tomorrow (Friday) afternoon.  But there may be a bit of tenseness surrounding the traditional end-of-session ceremonies.  That’s because there’s some question as to whether many Democrats and Republicans will still be on speaking terms.  A two-day battle between the parties in the House chamber culminated late Wednesday night with the passage of a manufacturing tax cut some say is unconstitutional.  And Lynn Hatter reports House Speaker Will Weatherford himself was admitting the whole thing was probably not his chamber’s finest hour.