Budget conference: Chambers sign off on slashing 600 state Health Department positions

The Florida Department of Health (DOH) is downsizing, employment-wise, under the Legislature’s spending plan for the coming fiscal year.

In its latest cross-rotunda offer, the House agreed to the Senate’s proposal to eliminate 451 vacant DOH positions and cut another 150 posts through a staffing budget reduction.

Combined, the 601 slashed positions — representing about 4.5% of its employment rolls — are expected to result in a $34.4 million favorable impact on the state’s General Revenue Fund.

The Senate’s plan was markedly more modest than what the lower chamber initially contemplated: cutting 1,630 vacant positions, give or take, for a $105.8 million savings.

But it’s more than what Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested in February through his “Focus on Fiscal Responsibility” proposal, which recommended that lawmakers pass a $115.6 billion budget, $3 billion less than the current one.

DeSantis’ plan provided for a 10.7% reduction in DOH’s budget and 484 positions cut from the agency.

It was the largest employment cut for any state department under the Governor’s budget, followed by 325, he said, that should be eliminated from the Department of Children and Families, which lawmakers just agreed to shrink by 455 jobs.

The House’s compromise marks the latest step toward closing out budget talks that have stretched more than a month beyond when they were supposed to end.

DOH employs thousands of people across health departments in all of Florida’s 67 counties who deliver services ranging from epidemiology and immunization to disease surveillance, school health and emergency response.

The current DOH budget of $4.1 billion is 5% higher than the previous one.

Aside from a $10 million earmark, the House continues to insist on funding for intestinal transplant support programs, to which the Senate is offering nothing, while the two chambers have agreed on all major DOH funding for 2025-26.

Once completed, the Legislature’s budget will go to the Governor for approval.