Jesse Scheckner
The House and Senate have released their respective “sprinkle lists” for the coming budget, and they combined for a healthy sum: $650 million that lawmakers can say they delivered last-minute for local projects.
Of that total, Miami-Dade Broward and Palm Beach counties can look forward to receiving about $30 million — a roughly 4.5% cut.
The sprinkle list, as its name suggests, is an assortment of supplemental funding initiatives the Legislature compiles as budgeting processes near closing to provide typically small apportionments (compared to other earmarks) to regional projects.
As was the case in years prior, the preponderance of sprinkle set-asides this year can be separated into education, infrastructure and a third pot of miscellaneous items.
The largest item was a nearly $2.2 million earmark the House made for the development of a planned “Institute of Law, Liberty and Capitalism” at St. Thomas University, a private Catholic school in Miami Gardens.
The House, which sprinkled about $9.5 million on the tri-county area, also allotted $1 million in funds for a Florida International University for a traffic analysis program using artificial intelligence to improve roadway flows. It’s the only recurring South Florida apportionment on the sprinkle list.
A January appropriations request from Miami Republican Sen. Alexis Calatayud said the funds will cover the purchase of traffic sensors and deployment of software.
Other Miami-Dade apportionments included a one-time giving of $950,000 for renovations at abused children’s shelter Kristi House and $500,000 apiece to the Miami-Dade Charter Institute and Keiser University for the expansion of nursing education provisions.
The House is giving $400,000 to the West Park Senior Program to keep elderly Broward denizens active and social and $175,000 to the ARC of Broward to help cover skills training for adults with disabilities.
Palm Beach, meanwhile, is getting $1.1 million for Florida Atlantic University’s Max Planck Scientific Fellowship Program, $1 million for traffic signal upgrades in West Palm Beach, $400,000 for a new South Florida Conservancy District canal trash truck and $250,000 for various turtle-care improvements at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center.
The Legislature’s upper chamber was significantly more generous this year, putting aside $20.5 million for Florida’s three most populous and well-to-do counties.
Miami-Beach was by far the biggest beneficiary and is set to receive nearly $16 million from the Senate. That includes $1.1 million for the Overtown Youth Center in Miami and $750,000 for renovations at the Miami Beach Community Health Center.
The Deering Estate, Habitat Miami, Miami Dade College and Miami Springs got $500,000 each. So did Miami-Dade County itself for a senior food program and the Live Like Bella Childhood Cancer Foundation.
Other Senate set-asides for Miami-Dade included $425,000 for resilience improvements at the Golden Beach Civic Center, $400,000 for the Little Havana Activities and Nutrition Center, $350,000 for a human trafficking recovery program at Camillus House, $350,000 for Miami Bridge Youth and Family Services’ homeless youth program and $200,000 for a Miami-Dade’s Condominium/HOA Criminal Fraud Task Force.
The Senate also approved sprinkling $1.3 million on Broward and $3.5 million on Palm Beach.
That includes $500,000 for resiliency and pedestrian safety improvements along Breakers Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, $377,000 for fire rescue simulation labs at the Broward Sheriff’s Office, $250,000 to expand Broward Public Schools’ student-athlete mentoring program and $175,000 more for ARC Broward.
Palm Beach is on track to get $3 million from the Senate to split evenly between three projects — West Palm Beach signalization upgrades, mental health programs at Alpert Jewish Family Services and hurricane hardening at the ARC of Palm Beach’s South Campus.
Another $500,000 will go to Palm Beach’s RESTORE (Regional and State Transitional Ex-Offender Initiative) program to help ex-convicts reenter society and avoid recidivism.
The release of the sprinkle list is a sign that budget negotiations are wrapping and the Legislature is likely to end Session on schedule Friday.
