A.G. Gancarski
The House and Senate budget conference committee for transportation and tourism appropriations had one meeting Sunday afternoon, but progress was made.
One relevant silo: road projects.
Sen. Travis Hutson, chair of the Senate Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development Committee, discussed this with media Sunday afternoon.
“The $80 million that the Senate offered on road projects, fully closed out,” Hutson said. “The House accepted all of the road projects. We closed some other general revenue projects out.”
Rep. Jay Trumbull, who chairs House Transportation and Tourism Appropriations, noted that the two “work pretty well together,” and had a “bunch of communications before the conference started on a number of these issues.”
These projects are quintessentially local, relatively small-dollar spends with big impacts in communities.
Land O’ Lakes US 41 landscape rehabilitation, Highland Beach crosswalks, St. Johns County SR 2209 extension, and airport projects for Keystone and DeFuniak Springs are smaller deals than some of the headline-grabbing gaps the committee resolved on Saturday.
On affordable housing, the Governor and Senate each wanted $387 million for the Sadowski Trust Fund while the House sought just $144 million. But on Saturday, the House moved closer to the Senate’s position with a $370 million budget line.
VISIT FLORIDA, the controversial tourism marketing agency, will get new life in the era of coronavirus caution: full funding at $50 million next year, and with whispers that a more long-term authorization is imminent.
The Job Growth Grant Fund was created in 2017 to help direct funds to regional projects focused on beefing up economic growth.
It will be funded in 2020’s budget, but at a fraction of allocations in previous years: just $10,000,000.
The committee will have one more pass, with a meeting at 9:30 a.m. Monday to resolve other outstanding issues.
Issues unresolved will be bumped to the House and Senate budget chairs no later than Monday at 1 p.m.
If the chairs cannot resolve issues, the remainder will roll to the Senate President and House Speaker to work the remainder out.
After a 72-hour cooling off period, legislators will be able to vote on the budget, a vote that is expected to happen next week rather than this Friday, as was previously scheduled.
