A.G. Gancarski
Unresolved and time-sensitive budget items were bumped to House and Senate appropriations chairs Monday, but they will not meet until Tuesday.
Despite the lack of a formal meeting scheduled, House budget chair Travis Cummings said that progress is being made.
“Things didn’t bump until this afternoon and we have been on the floor a lot,” Cummings said.
Cummings added that he and Senate budget chair Rob Bradley are “making a lot of progress with each budget silo.”
While conference chairs uniformly lauded the progress made in silos, a number of issues are unresolved, presenting potential challenges.
Senate President Bill Galvano said Monday that lawmakers will have to rethink the legislature’s budget, possibly including at least an additional $200 million to address concerns from the new coronavirus.
Galvano said the increased COVID-19 funding could take a bite out of other areas of the budget, including teacher pay raises.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Jose Oliva issued a stark note of warning in the House Monday.
The state’s budget may need to be reconsidered in light of increasingly worrisome economic circumstances.
Oliva, who had spotlighted potential “panic” before, noted that the stock market had to halt trading given the sell orders cascading in this morning.
“The ten-year yield is at an all-time low,” Oliva said. “There’s some word that the Fed is probably going to move another three-quarter points off the interest.”
“We may be facing a very real challenge here,” Oliva said, noting coronavirus pressures.
The comments come after a weekend where the House moved to the Senate position on a number of budget issues, including big ticket items.
Florida Forever, the state’s land conservation program, was slated to be funded at $100 million according to the latest from conference committees.
Affordable housing is likewise slated for almost full funding at $370 million, with $115 million for affordable housing programs, $225 million for the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) Program and $30 million for the Hurricane Housing Recovery Program.
Likewise with VISIT FLORIDA, which would receive $50 million, a concession from the Speaker.
All of those funding levels could land back on the negotiation table.
While Senate President Galvano has expressed confidence that none of these shared priorities of the Governor and Senate will take a haircut, the final answer won’t be known until the budget wraps.
DeSantis likewise is confident that the $25 million for coronavirus funding will be enough … for now at least.
“The leaders understand this is something that we have to deal with, and it’s better to be prepared than have to be shortchanged,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis highlighted the request in remarks Monday, noting that the federal government was anticipated to chip in at least $27 million or “hopefully more.”
Coronavirus has cast a pall over the Session, and it remains to be seen whether that shadow will affect key budget priorities.
That said, the budget chairs are working it out, even if they aren’t meeting in public.
