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Christine Jordan SextonJune 13, 2015

Gov. Rick Scott traveled to Paris on Friday aiming to bring back to his home state economic development projects. But while Scott is away House and Senate budget negotiators have reached a deal to give the governor considerably less money than he wanted for business recruitment. Sen. Tom Lee and Rep. Richard Corcoran on Saturday […]

Christine Jordan SextonJune 12, 2015

Legislative leaders on Friday said the House and Senate budget chairs would continue to work over the weekend in order to bring the General Appropriations Act in for a landing. The goal is for a copy of the budget to be on lawmakers’ desks by Tuesday so they can wait the mandated 72 hours before […]

Christine Jordan SextonJune 12, 2015

Budget chairmen Sen. Tom Lee and Rep. Richard Corcoran came to terms early Friday on what was the biggest stumbling block during the 2015 session and what Lee called the “linchpin” of the budget: supplemental Medicaid funding. After working for days, the House made a Low Income Pool offer to the Senate that takes advantage […]

Staff ReportsJune 11, 2015

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday passed a $400 million tax package reduction, absent the direction of Chairman Sen. Tom Lee who was preparing for a noon budget meeting with House counterpart Richard Corcoran. HB 33A was placed on the Senate Special Order Calendar so it will be on second reading Friday, the end of […]

Christine Jordan SextonJune 10, 2015

Fort Walton Beach Medical Center — included in the list of hospitals with some of the highest Medicare charges in the nation — could get a $1 million gift from the Florida Legislature. House and budget health care conferees on Tuesday made their best and last offer to settle differences between the House and Senate […]

Ryan RayJune 9, 2015

The presiding officers of the Legislature’s two chambers, Senate President Andy Gardiner and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, made a show of unity Tuesday after a turbulent beginning to 2015 Special Session A. They issuing a joint statement early Tuesday afternoon saying they will allow budget conference subchairs to continue to work out their differences rather than have leadership […]

Ryan RayJune 9, 2015

On Tuesday, the Department of Management Services’ Joint Task Force on State Agency Law Enforcement Communications once again discussed a business case from January that recommends a competitive bidding process to achieve the adoption of a suite of “P25” radio standards. As the state looks to upgrade its outmoded, analog law enforcement radio system the […]

Christine Jordan SextonJune 8, 2015

Senate budget Chief Tom Lee said on Monday the House is “doing the bidding” of Gov. Rick Scott in pushing to increase funds to Enterprise Florida. The remarks followed Sen. Jack Latvala‘s abrupt move to adjourn the Tourism and Economic Development budget conferee meeting early Monday morning just minutes into the meeting and as the House […]

Christine Jordan SextonJune 6, 2015

The House on Friday rejected a Senate-driven health care expansion plan, passed a $300 million tax reduction package and capped the day by releasing the allocations that tell the story behind the budget deal that the Legislature agreed to this week. Working through staff, legislative leaders reached a deal on how to divide nearly $28.9 […]

Christine Jordan SextonJune 5, 2015

The Florida Senate was in session for less than five minutes on Friday before adjourning. Senate President Andy Gardiner announced that the House and Senate had agreed to budget allocations and that the two chambers would begin hammering out the differences in the proposed spending plans for the 2015-16 fiscal year beginning at 9 a.m. […]

Tag: Tom Lee

As Rick Scott travels to Paris, lawmakers inch closer to final budget

Everybody’s working over the weekend, really

House, Senate agree on new LIP model

Senate panel OKs $400 million tax package; budget chairs meet at high noon

NW Florida hospital with high Medicare mark-ups could get $1 million from Legislature

Andy Gardiner, Steve Crisafulli agree in joint statement to extend budget conference

State task force considers competitive procurement process for law enforcement radios

Tom Lee says House is “doing the bidding” of Rick Scott on Enterprise Florida funding

Budget deal increases health care funding by $450 million

Finally … chambers set for Saturday conference on budget