Jesse Scheckner
Florida will again set aside some cash — $500 million, this time around — for declared disasters in the state.
After proposing different totals in their respective spending plans, the Senate and House agreed to the sum, which fell exactly in the middle.
In its budget bill (SB 2500), the upper chamber recommended a $250 million earmark for the Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund (EPRF), the primary funding source the Governor uses to prepare and respond to disasters and states of emergency that exceed regularly appropriated funding.
The lower chamber’s budget bill (HB 5001) proposed triple that: $750 million.
On Thursday, the Senate increased its proposal by a quarter billion dollars to $500 million, the same as what was in last year’s signed budget.
Matt Bahl, Chief of Staff to House Speaker Daniel Perez, told Florida Politics that the House would accept it.
Notably, the total the chambers reached was half of what Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed Feb. 3 in his “Focus on Fiscal Responsibility” plan.
The $1 billion set-aside DeSantis recommended was part of a larger $14.6 billion in disaster-related reserves his office said would “ensure Florida can effectively respond to storms and unforeseen disasters” in the coming fiscal year.
Last year, Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton struck Florida between Aug. 5 and Oct. 5. They resulted in combined insured losses of $7.46 billion and $850 million in state spending on disaster response, for much of which the state is seeking federal reimbursement.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast an above-average 2025 hurricane season, predicting 13-19 named storms and estimating that three to five could become major hurricanes.
That’s down from 17 to 25 named storms the agency’s National Weather Service foresaw the year before, when it said between four and seven would become major hurricanes. There ended up being 18 named storms and five major hurricanes of 111 mph winds or greater.
This year’s hurricane season approaches with marked shortages in weather service staffing — a deficiency that Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Parkland, Florida’s former emergency chief, is trying to shore up through bipartisan legislation filed this week.
