Budget conference: House and Senate start $9M apart in budget proposals for Department of Management Services

The Senate and House both plan to significantly cut cybersecurity costs at the Department of Management Services (DMS). But the chambers are still $9 million apart in their total desired spending at the state government’s business division.

In total, the latest offer from the Senate Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government calls for just under $810 million to be spent on the DMS budget, while the House State Administration Budget Subcommittee wants under $801 million.

Initial proposals from both the House and Senate would shift about $35 million away from Enterprise Cybersecurity Resiliency in net deductions. The chambers also both want to cut $17 million in a scaling back of “excess budget authority in telecommunications.”

But the House has $15 million in local government cybersecurity technical assistance grants that are nowhere to be found in the Senate offer. Meanwhile, the Senate has a number of appropriations requests and cuts the House does not have in its spreadsheet.

Notably, the Senate wants to provide $20.3 million in increases to the state’s Suncom Centrex categories, the communication system for state offices across Florida. The House hasn’t budgeted anything for that to date.

Meanwhile, the House wants to set aside $86.2 million to cover statewide capital depreciation at DMS, about $10 million more than the Senate offer of $76.6 million.

The chambers have agreed on some smaller line items that do add up. Both chambers include $1 million for life safety code compliance projects across the state, and $2 million for the relocation or reconstruction of law enforcement radio system towers throughout Florida. There’s also agreement on $1.8 million for an upgrade to the Emergency 911 public safety answering points system.

Both chambers also plan to put $1.3 million in increased bundled administrative services for various statewide contracts.

But the House wants to cut building construction costs at DMS by $1 million and to eliminate $3.1 million worth of vacant DMS jobs in the next three months, two plans the Senate is not on board with right now.