Ryan Ray
The bicameral panel budget charged with writing the state’s budget for courts and law enforcement met for the last time during budget year 2016-17 on Monday. House and Senate leaders said they worked to compromise on “99 percent” of the budget, leaving aside just a handful unresolved of line items and proviso language.
Conference Committee on Justice/Criminal and Civil Justice Chair Rep. Larry Metz and the House accepted the Senate position on dozens of items while Vice Chair Sen. Joe Negron did the same, closing out administrative costs for sundry state agencies, funding positions at the Attorney General’s office and the state courts, and funds to study and reform protocols at state prisons, which have come under scrutiny following reports of serious breakdowns in recent months.
Lawmakers also added $15 million for prison health care and the equivalent of new full-time employees for the state public defenders.
Head budget chiefs Rep. Richard Corcoran and Sen. Tom Lee are set to take up any unresolved budget issues Monday evening at 6 p.m., and the justice silo will be sending some work their way.
The House and Senate conferees could not agree on whether the Florida Department of Law Enforcement needs 14 new employees to look into police force incidents, a Senate priority, or a number of member-requested local projects.
The chamber’s respective budgets were just more than $1 million apart in terms of overall spending in their almost $2 billion budget proposals.
