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Ryan Ray - page 15

Ryan Ray has 632 articles published.

Ryan Ray writes about campaigns and public policy in Tampa Bay and across the state. A contributor to FloridaPolitics.com and before that, The Florida Squeeze, he covers the Legislature as a member of the Florida Capitol Press Corps and has worked as a staffer on several campaigns. He can be reached at [email protected].

State police radio replacement dispute becomes budget conference sticking point

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An obscure but heated battle over a state contract potentially worth hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money is at stake as budget conferees continue to hammer out differences between House and Senate proposals. At issues is the radio equipment law enforcement agents use to communicate. Problems with communication gear have led to the deaths of several officers across the country. Tucked into the House’s government operations budget proposal is $7 million for a line item that reads “Replacement Of Statewide Law…

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House, Senate TED budget writers still unresolved on DEO funding

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House and Senate budget conferees remain some distance away from reconciling their varying budget proposals, with a nominal $8 million and several line items standing between lawmakers and a unified budget proposal to send to Gov. Rick Scott. The elephant in the room? Neither proposal circulating in the Conference Committee on House Transportation & Economic Development Appropriations/Senate Transportation, Tourism, & Economic Development has any money allocated for the $250 million Florida Enterprise Fund that insiders say is Scott’s No. 1 priority, perhaps…

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Budget writers nearing deal on courts, legal funding

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House and Senate justice budget writers appear within striking range of a deal to reconcile their proposals, which sat at $3.5 million apart after two meetings on Saturday, one-10th of 1 percent over the overall budget. As of Sunday afternoon the gap was narrowed to about $441,939 in general revenue, though the way the money is appropriated still differs slightly. Budget writers closed out differences on nearly a dozen line items including funding for public defenders and other state-provided defense…

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Justice budget writers closing out differences; House, Senate $3.5 million apart

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Legislative budget writers moved the needle during their second conference meeting Saturday night, narrowing the discrepancies between House and Senate proposals to just $3.5 million dollars, about 0.1 percent of the $4.1 billion proposed criminal and civil justice budget. This time it was the Senate’s turn to make an offer, and committee Vice Chairman Sen. Joe Negron took the House’s position on a number of priorities and modified its position on several others. The Senate amended its proposal to mirror the House’s…

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Gov’t ops budgets inch toward reconciliation

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The Government Operations/General Government budget conference held its second meeting Saturday, as the sub-chairs for each chamber — Rep. Jeanette Nunez and Sen. Alan Hays — continued to wrangle spreadsheets and inch closer to squaring the $10 million in differences between their respective proposals. This time it was the House’s turn to respond to a Senate offer from earlier this morning, and Nunez made progress towards reconciling the outstanding line items, though they remain about $11.6 million apart. Major sticking points include some $7…

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Justice budgets growing closer together, but $10 million in differences remain

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The conference committee on the state justice budget appeared to be going smoothly Saturday afternoon, with the House accepting the Senate position on more than two dozen line items, but making divergent offers on many others. In all the differences totaled nearly $10 million, about $5 million of that in recurring general revenue dollars and some $5 million in non-recurring funds The House and Senate offers remained separated by more than $2 million for on a trial court technology comprehensive plan…

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House, Senate agree on TED budget proposal

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The Senate accepted the House’s offer on funding for the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the Department of Transportation, but with a caveat — that the two chambers must still work out proviso language on two transportation programs. One of those two programs, which provide services for the transportation disadvantaged, was a priority of Sen. Audrey Gibson, a Democrat from Jacksonville. The House offered to provide $4.25 million to those programs — about half of the $8 million the Senate put…

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