CAPITAL REPORT on 89.1 WFSW-FM

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. 

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.

The molasses-like pace of the Florida House continued throughout today (Wednesday).  That’s because, as Steven Rodriguez reports, House Democrats and Republicans were locked in a contest of legislative chicken to see who would blink first and call for a return to normal lawmaking procedures.

The Florida Virtual School is bracing for an impending budget cut as a result of changes in the state funding formula. Lynn Hatter reports the move also has school districts on edge as they too eye a drop in funding as a result of changes proposed in the state’s 2013 budget plan.

When things are rolling along smoothly and you can’t get the other guy’s attention, simply bring the proceedings to a screeching halt….or at least, a painfully slow crawl.  Regan McCarthy reports that’s exactly the tactic that Democrats in the Florida House used today to call Republican attention to the matter of health care expansion for low income Floridians.