Jim Rosica
It’s that time of year when state agencies start asking what they want lawmakers to pony up.
Agencies that report to Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet – Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam – will formally turn in their legislative budget requests Tuesday at the September Cabinet meeting.
The wish lists for the 2017-18 fiscal year were available Monday on the Cabinet’s website as part of the meeting material.
State government is funded with a mix of general revenue (tax money available for any use), trust fund (can only be used for specific purposes) and federal dollars.
Also, money can be “recurring” (expected to be needed over future years) or “non-recurring” (requested only once and then used).
The Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR), for instance, is asking for $31.6 million, up from the current year’s $30.9 million budget. That includes a $1.5 million increase from the current year in salaries and benefits because of a “reclassification of positions.”
The request points out OIR is “exclusively funded by the Insurance Regulatory Trust Fund – no General Revenue is utilized for the Office’s budget.”
The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles will ask for $41.3 million next year. Its top priorities are the continued modernization of its driver license, registrations and other documents issuance technology, about $14 million.
The Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) seeks $20.4 million, including $785,984 to pay for the continued work on reducing the backlog of untested rape kits.
The Department of Revenue is asking for $551.8 million. “Of this amount, $550,386,870 is recurring,” the request says. “This represents a .2% increase in total recurring funding for all funds over the FY 2016-2017 recurring appropriation.”
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs seeks $59 million, with nearly $48 million for construction and renovation of the state’s veterans’ nursing homes.
But typical state veterans’ home construction has a “65/35” split, with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs picking up 65 percent of the development and construction costs and the state picking up the remaining 35 percent, a spokesman explained.
The Cabinet meeting starts at 9 a.m.
One comment
SandyO
September 20, 2016 at 6:59 pm
Time to throw those crooked agencies out, starting with Bondi.
Those agencies have long ago dropped their prime Purpose, to protect or improve The Common Good.
Their bold stand Now is to boost their annual budgets by falsifying last year’s records, or /and other means.
Get ’em out or Vote em out where you can
out Out OUT! Disband the agencies full of fraud completely. We can do a lot better without them.
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