Staff Reports
Sixty Days — A prime-time look at the 2023 Legislative Regular Session:
The Last 24
Republican leaders are agreeing to boost general revenue funding for health and human services programs in the coming year. Headed into the conference process, the Senate had proposed spending $14.83 billion in general revenue and the House had proposed spending $14.68 billion. But the chambers are now aligned on $15.06 billion in GR across six agencies: the Agency for Health Care Administration, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, the Department of Health, the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Elder Affairs and the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs. The $15 billion GR allocation is larger than any other area in the budget. In all, lawmakers agreed to spend $45.2 billion in general revenue for the 2023-24 fiscal year. Here’s your nightly rundown.
Big gap: More than $140M still separate the Senate and House spending plans for prison education and health programs.
Getting closer: The House has narrowed its plan to rework Florida’s main funding formula for K-12 schools as part of formal budget talks with the Senate, but the chambers remain divided on other areas of the education budget.
Explain yourselves: The House is preparing to subpoena physician specialty societies that support trans care.
Migrant flights: The House budgeted $12M for the transport of “unauthorized aliens,” but the Senate isn’t on board.
All about the Hamiltons: The Legislature is showing its commitment to civil discourse with a $10M appropriation — or, one million Hamiltons — for The Hamilton Center at UF.
New College cash: The Senate advanced $15M for New College along with a slate of new trustees.
In-state rivalry: The House and Senate are at odds over a $1M line item for an in-state marketing campaign at VISIT FLORIDA.
That, times 80: The chambers are also in disagreement over whether to fund the tourism-marketing agency at all. The Senate is at $80M; the House is at $0.
Bernie bucks: The House is heeding judges’ request for $9M to build a new Bernie McCabe 2nd District Court of Appeal building. The Senate isn’t.
Firestarter: The House and Senate have a number of disagreements over which firehouses need to be hosed down in state dollars.
Bonus the Blue: The House and Senate are aligned on $20M for law enforcement signing bonuses.
Safety silo: The House’s infrastructure budget now includes funding for a driving range at the Florida Highway Patrol academy.
Seek and destroy: Senate and House lawmakers agree with Gov. Ron DeSantis that $20M should go toward ‘eradicating’ fentanyl.
No dice: The Senate is resisting the House’s move to allot $1.4M to boost Capitol area security.
Pay raise: Lawmakers have agreed to bump pay rates for medical and mental health providers working in the juvenile justice system.
Farm Share: As conferees meet on the budget, the House set aside $2.5M for Farm Share, and the Senate upped its appropriation to $4.5M.
Piney payday: The House set aside $1M for a resiliency and development mitigation project for Piney Island, but the Senate didn’t do so in its bill or in its first offer.
INTERCEPT: The House and the Senate have agreed to fund a Northeast Florida anti-human trafficking task force at $764,852.
Smooth drive: House and Senate committees have agreed to slot $285,000 for a road resurfacing project in Hilliard.
Auxiliary power: The House and the Senate would both spend $250,000 on a new generator for the Baker County Courthouse, fulfilling a long-needed infrastructural need.
Amelia money: The House and Senate are aligned on a $225,000 feasibility study for Phase 5 of the Amelia Island Trail.
Rubber stamp: Two archconservatives who have been sitting on the Board of Education for a year are advancing through their state Senate confirmation hearings.
‘Not a candidate’: After a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, an exasperated DeSantis told media he’s “not a candidate” for President.
Um, OK: Gov. Ron DeSantis weighed in on a mayoral election in Illinois for the benefit of Japanese businessmen.
Flashback: During a roundtable in Japan, the Governor returned to very familiar talking points about COVID-19 mitigation strategies leading to “productive people” moving to Florida.
Scoreboard: Former New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, who DeSantis campaigned for last year, is endorsing Donald Trump for President.
Quote of the Day
“Shakespeare said it best, ‘If money go before, all ways do lie open. We’ll see how it plays out, but it’s certainly a good problem to have.”
— House Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Sam Garrison, on the health care funding boost.
Bill Day’s Latest
3 Questions
Following a health care budget conference meeting, Senate Health and Human Services Chair Gayle Harrell spoke with reporters about the current state of negotiations surrounding the KidCare program as well as pilot program lawmakers are considering that would test out a new system to provide care for some of the state’s most medically needy patients.
Q: Could you tell us about the current discussions surrounding Kid Care.
KidCare is very important part of our budget. It’s part of our whole process. And as we have a lot of individuals coming off Medicaid, we want to make sure that there is health insurance for them out there. And the KidCare program is very, very important as you know. We have a bill dealing with that and we’re addressing that in the budget as well — looking at how we can raise the income levels to increase the number of children who will be eligible for some subsidy within KidCare.
Q: What’s the status of the APD waitlist?
We are looking at that very carefully. If you’ll notice, Sen. (Jay) Trumbull has a bill (SB 1084) out there addressing that. I know we’re working very closely with various members in the House in order to look at that very carefully. We have 120 slots, if you want to call them that, that we anticipate taking off the waitlist. Those are normally people in the category one or category two arena, so we’re anticipating that — that happens on a pretty regular basis and we anticipate that moving forward. But if you will look at Sen. Trumbull’s bill, that is looking at things from a different perspective. It’s looking at perhaps starting a pilot program to move into more of a managed care arena. And we want to do that very carefully. So that’s all in conversation in negotiation at this point.
Q: Are you planning on including money for that as well?
It takes a while. You have to get federal waiver approval, so we would not anticipate that there would be additional expenses more than AHCA could handle within existing resources. This year, there might be some additional resources, but not major. If we move forward in this arena, we’re talking major resources, because if you read the bill, it puts the pilot program in two different sections of the state — two different regions — and it’s following the model that we did in 2004 and 2005. If you remember that, we did a pilot to say, ‘would managed care for Medicaid?’ And we were very careful in how we structured it. We had to go and get the federal waivers to do it. And we did an evaluation before we went statewide. We would want to do the same model, the same thing, especially given this population. You know, these are individuals who have great needs. They’re persons with great disabilities, and we want to make sure we get it right. So, pilots work to really look and see ‘is this feasible?’ It would take significant resources because it would anticipate having enough people in the pilot to get some statistically valid evaluations as to whether it works or not. You also have to have a significant number of people to have your networks be able to accommodate them — you can’t have one or two people and call it a pilot. You have to have adequate numbers of participants.
Lobby Up
Session is entering the final stretch, but there are still a handful of advocacy days left on the calendar.
The big one this week is “Rural Counties Day at the Capitol,” which highlights the impacts of rural Florida on the state’s agricultural economy and draws attention to the old Florida charm on offer for those who step off the beaten path — whether through historic main streets or quaint, southern-feel bed-and-breakfasts.
Rural Counties Day hasn’t been around as long as most other advocacy days, but it’s been gaining traction since Palatka Republican Rep. Bobby Payne organized the inaugural edition a few years ago. Only five counties participated in first Rural Counties Day, but the 2023 list features a whopping 27 counties.
Many of the state’s rural counties have lobbyists making sure that lawmakers don’t forget they exist during budget talks.
Putnam County — Payne’s home turf — is represented by David Browning, Mercer Fearington, Nicole Kelly, Sydney Ridley and Clark Smith of The Southern Group. The No. 66 county by population, Glades, has Richard Coates of Tidewater Consulting; Jim Naff of Smith Bryan & Myers; and James Spratt and Connie Vanassche of CAS Governmental Services in its corner.
Florida’s least populous county, Liberty, doesn’t have a lobbyist on retainer, but their school board has a deal with Patrick Bell of The Legis Group. Several other small counties are in the same boat.
That’s where the Florida Association of Counties steps in.
FAC, which represents the interests of all Florida counties, has a Rural Caucus that helps counties with populations under 125,000 identify priorities, strategize and share solutions on issues of rural significance.
In addition to in-house lobbyists Virginia Delegal, Jared Grigas, Sara Henley, Edward Labrador, Robert McKee, Jeffrey Scala and Davin Suggs, FAC has several contract lobbyists, including some heavyweight firms. The list includes Matt Bryan, Jeff Hartley and Lisa Hurley of Smith Bryan & Myers; Dean Cannon, Angela Drzewiecki, Ryan Matthews, Kim McDougal and Joseph Salzverg of GrayRobinson; and Candice Ericks, David Ericks and Lauren Jackson of Ericks Consultants.
Breakthrough Insights
The Next 24
— Senate 50th Day Rule: Last day for regularly scheduled Senate Committee meetings.
9:15 a.m. — Senate Minority Leader and Lauren’s Kids founder and CEO Lauren Book will hold a news conference kicking off the nonprofit’s 42 Hours for the 42 Million advocacy walk at the Florida Capitol. Plaza Level Rotunda.
10 a.m. — The Senate Appropriations Committee will consider more than a dozen bills, including measures that would require DHSMV to contract with a nonprofit for a motorcycle safety education program (SB 838) and that would help preserve Black cemeteries (SB 430). Room 110 Senate Office Building.
10 a.m. — The Senate Fiscal Policy Committee has more than 60 bills on its agenda, including legislation (SB 588) that would allow local governments to set up camera enforcement systems for school zones. Room 412, Knott Building.
10 a.m. — The House holds a floor session. House chambers.
Also, the following committees will meet:
6:15 p.m. — The House Rules Committee meets. Room 404, House Office Building.
6:15 p.m. — The Senate Special Order Calendar Group meets. Room 401, Senate Office Building.
Full committee agendas, including bills to be considered, are available on the House and Senate websites.
