Representatives from the Florida House had tough questions for budget leaders Thursday about decisions made in the spending plan.
Bright Futures. Millage rates. Adult education and the Low Income Pool, or LIP money. Those are just a few of the topics explored by members of the Florida House of Representatives during a review of the tentative state budget. Miami Republican Representative Erik Fresen chaired the Education Appropriations subcommittee. He answered questions about what cuts were made to education allotments and discussed the increase in the Florida Education Finance Program, or FEFP. He says it's a small change compared with the size of the overall budget.
“I mean $20 million dollars in a bucket that’s billions of dollars isn’t much of an increase as far as from April to now, but even then, the 56-44 percent ratio of state to local actually increased from April to now,” Fresen said.
Lawmakers also asked several questions about how the special session helped to resolve budgeting issues with healthcare funding for uninsured Floridians. Tensions ran high in the discussion – but legislative leaders still expect to pass the budget Friday evening.