House, Senate budgets diverge on education, economic development

The House and Senate each passed their preferred budgets this week (SB 2500, HB 5001) to set the stage for formal negotiations between the chambers later in the Regular Session. The Senate version is $113.6 billion, or about $600 million more than the House plan.

Although the chambers agree on some issues — neither has tuition increases, Bright Futures Scholarships are funded at $590.7 million in each and they’ve already approved $711 million for affordable housing as part of SB 102 — there are still some major differences between them both in numbers and in their approach to a variety of programs.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest differences that will have to be ironed out.

EDUCATION

The House has $21.1 billion in its Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP), the main funding formula for K-12 schools, while the Senate includes $19.1 billion. But the biggest difference is not in the numbers but the details of how that money is handed down to school districts.

House Speaker Paul Renner, a Palm Coast Republican, prefers to fold $2 billion of money that would otherwise be dedicated to specific spending on instructional materials, mental health services, reading instruction, school security and teacher salary increases into the FEFP base. The move would give school districts greater flexibility within their own budgets, but the Senate sticks to the current formula in its spending plan.

Another key difference is in the chambers’ approaches to HB 1, the new law expanding the state’s voucher program to all students. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill Mar. 27, allowing all students to receive an $8,000 stipend to attend a private school if they choose. But estimates vary as to how many new parents and students will take advantage of it, and the House and Senate take different routes to pay for the expansion of the program.

In the Senate $2.2 billion is reserved to pay for the program in total, keeping it separate from the FEFP. The House includes funding in the FEFP for the program and reserves nearly $110 million in case the number of people signing up for vouchers exceeds projections.

HEALTH CARE

The House and Senate have both agreed to spend $79.6 million to remove people with disabilities on the Medicaid iBudget waiting list who are deemed to be in “crisis.”

The iBudget is a waiver program that allows the state to provide services that assist with activities of daily living such as grooming and eating. Those services aren’t traditionally covered by Medicaid but when provided can keep people with developmental disabilities living in communities instead of institutions. People are considered to be “in crisis” if they are homeless, at risk of getting arrested or are a danger to themselves or others.

The Senate plan goes further, spending another $6 million to increase payments for iBudget support coordinators, which the House doesn’t include in its plan.

Another major difference is in how the chambers handle KidCare, a program that provides low-cost health care coverage for children. Renner wants to expand eligibility to the program, including $34 million in the budget for the plan, which the Senate doesn’t include.

Sen. Gayle Harrell, a Stuart Republican in charge of writing the Senate’s health care budget, said she was considering the House plan.

“I am looking very seriously at it, and if we can find the dollars, I am amenable to doing it,” Harrell told Florida Politics.

Stephanie Haridopolos chairs the Florida Healthy Kids Corporation board of directors, which is charged with administering KidCare.

“In my heart, I feel like it’s going to happen this year,” Harridopolos told Florida Politics.

STATE WORKER PAY

Both chambers include across-the-board pay raises for state workers, but the House offers more — a 6% raise, versus 3% in the Senate.

There are also targeted bonuses and salary increases for law enforcement and prison system staffers, including a $1,000 bonus for teachers in prisons in the Senate plan, along with $20 million for $5,000 bonuses for new police officer hires. In the House, there’s $5 million for a law enforcement scholarship program to pay for training for new officers and $30 million for the bonus program.

The House is also including a plan to boost pension benefits for state workers by $3.1 billion (HB 239) as part of the budget talks. The bill would restore the cost-of-living adjustment that was removed in 2011 and allow employees in the Special Risk category — police, firefighters, first responders — to retire up to five years earlier.

TRANSPORTATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Renner has made the elimination of Enterprise Florida, a public-private group that recruits businesses to expand or move to the state, one of his top priorities and the House budget also zeroes out funding for VISIT FLORIDA, another public-private agency that promotes the tourism industry. Meanwhile, the Senate budget includes funding increases for VISIT FLORIDA and maintains current funding for Enterprise Florida.

The fight over the future of the programs is a rerun of the battle that helped bring budget discussions to a halt in 2017, before a compromise was forged between then-Gov. Rick Scott, who cherished the programs as job creation tools, and then-House Speaker Richard Corcoran, who considered them “corporate welfare,” that kept the programs alive while introducing transparency reforms.

But Renner and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, a Naples Republican, have worked in concert to pass several major bills before the halfway point of the Regular Session, and it’s unlikely a dispute over the programs would result in more brinkmanship.

One off-shoot of the 2017 budget compromise was the creation of the Jobs Growth Grant Fund, a pot of money used by the Governor to fund infrastructure and job training projects. DeSantis requested $100 million for the program this year, but the Senate version includes just $75 million and the House has only set aside $25 million.

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Christine Jordan Sexton of Florida Politics contributed to this report.