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2017-18 state budget - page 2

House releases document listing state budget line items by county

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The House released a county-by-county list of budget line items Tuesday, ranging from a $26.8 million loan for a highway project in Alachua County to $64,820 in adult education money in Washington County. Speaker Richard Corcoran’s office dropped the list without comment, but it followed by four days Florida TaxWatch’s annual list of budgetary “turkeys” — line items included without sufficient public scrutiny or ranking low on the state’s priority lists. TaxWatch asked Gov. Rick Scott to veto projects totalling…

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Legislature failed transparency test this year, TaxWatch chief Dominic Calabro says

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Of the missteps the Legislature committed this year, the most egregious was a failure to live up to its promises that the budget process would be more open and transparent than ever before, according to Florida TaxWatch chief Dominic Calabro. In an interview tied to TaxWatch’s release of its annual list of budgetary “turkeys,” Calabro praised House Speaker Richard Corcoran especially for subjecting member projects to unprecedented scrutiny. Where Corcoran fell down, Calabro said, was in failing to collaborate with the…

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Time growing short for Rick Scott to decide ‘whiskey & Wheaties’ bill’s fate

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A history of alcoholism in Gov. Rick Scott’s family will inform his decision about whether to sign the “whiskey & Wheaties” bill, which would tear down the wall of separation between hard liquor and other goods. “I’ve gotten a lot of feedback on that bill,” Scott told reporters. “I’ve had family members who have had the challenge of alcoholism,” he said when asked about that history. “It concerns me. As I review the bill — I think I have to…

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‘Lack of transparency’ causes calls for Rick Scott budget veto

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Both citing a “lack of transparency,” the heads of the League of Women Voters of Florida and the First Amendment Foundation are calling for Gov. Rick Scott to veto the just-passed state budget for 2017-18. But with the House of Representatives passing the budget 98-14 and the Senate approving 34-4 on Monday, there are enough votes there to override a veto, assuming none change. League President Pamela S. Goodman and FAF President Barbara A. Petersen alerted their members in separate emails on Tuesday.…

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Legislature OKs 2017-18 state budget in extended session

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The Senate approved a roughly $83 billion state spending plan during a legislative overtime Monday, including a raft of conforming bills implementing House and Senate priorities on matters including public schools, colleges, and universities. The 34-4 vote sent the General Appropriations Act to the House, which later approved it on a 98-14 vote. The annual ‘sine die’ ceremony, with the sergeants-at-arms for both chambers dropping handkerchiefs simultaneously, happened at 8:52 p.m. The budget now heads to Gov. Rick Scott, who was at a…

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Jack Latvala gets into it with Jeff Brandes over economics incentives bill

in The Bay and the 'Burg by

The Senate sent the VISIT Florida and Enterprise Florida budget cuts to the Governor Monday on a 29-8 vote, but not before Sen. Jack Latvala, who has supported Gov. Rick Scott on economic incentives, took the opportunity to nitpick. The House approved the measure earlier in the day. Latvala started with HB 5501’s formal name: Displaced Homemakers. Among its many provisions, the bill would fold a jobs program for them into standard programs within the Department of Economic Opportunity. “You…

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Education bill, key to budget deal, clears the Senate by two votes

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Only one of the budget conforming bills debated in the Senate Monday drew a point of order — SB 7069, to implement the House’s ideas about charter schools and teacher bonuses. It didn’t stop the bill from passing, on a vote of 20-18. House and Senate negotiators have paired the bill with separate legislation carrying the Senate’s higher education agenda. Sen. Gary Farmer raised the point of order, arguing that the education compromise violated multiple Senate rules. For example, he…

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