The conference committee charged with writing the state’s budget for courts and law enforcement met the final time Monday for budget year 2016-17 on Monday. House and Senate leaders said they worked to compromise on “99 percent” of the budget, leaving aside just a handful unresolved of line items and proviso language.
Conference Committee on Justice/Criminal and Civil Justice Chairman Rep. Larry Metz and the House accepted the Senate position on dozens of items while Vice Chairman Sen. Joe Negron did the same. They closed out administrative costs for sundry state agencies, funding positions at the Attorney General’s office and the state courts, and provided money to study and reform protocols at state prisons. The state’s corrections system has been scrutiny after reports of serious problems in recent months.
Lawmakers also added $15 million for prison health care and the equivalent of new full-time employees for state public defenders.
Head budget chiefs Rep. Richard Corcoran and Sen. Tom Lee are set to take up any unresolved budget issues at 6 p.m. Monday, and the justice silo will be sending work their way.
The House and Senate conferees could not agree on whether the Florida Department of Law Enforcement needs 14 new employees to look into police force incidents – a Senate priority, or a number of member-requested local projects.
The chamber’s respective budgets were a little more than $1 million apart in terms of overall spending in their almost $2 billion in budget proposals.
