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2017-18 state budget - page 7

House and Senate settle budget allotments, appoint conference committees

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The House and Senate agreed upon the outlines of a state budget Thursday and appointed conferees to work out the details, beginning that afternoon. Senate President Joe Negron said the deal would provide an across-the-board raise for state workers — their first in about nine years, according to Appropriations Chairman Jack Latvala, for whom the raise was a priority. “This has not been the least difficult negotiation that either of us has ever been in,” Latvala told Negron from the…

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Continuing sales pitch for Visit Florida, Rick Scott warns of hit to state revenues

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tourism

Gov. Rick Scott has issued another missive urging full financial support for Visit Florida. This one is a memo written to Scott by Christian Weiss, in-house economist to the governor, who warns that cutting the tourism-development program by $50 million — as House and Senate budget negotiators are considering doing — would result in a $210 million decline in state revenues. Two thirds of that would comprise sales tax receipts to the state, Weiss wrote; the rest, sales tax distributions…

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Budget deal would include Lake O plan, lower property taxes for schools

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House and Senate negotiators have agreed on the broad outlines of a new state budget, and were haggling over the details before appointing members to conference committees, Senate President Joe Negron said Wednesday. “We’ve reached an agreement on the substance of the budget, and we’ve also reached agreement on a way that we can get to conference,” Negron told reporters. “These are complicated issues, and so we’re in the process of completing a document that sets forth all of the…

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Top Senate Democrat says chambers will split the difference on state budget

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There were competing accounts Wednesday of negotiations over the next state budget, with the Senate’s top Democrat saying a deal’s been struck. The chambers have agreed to meet in the middle on the $4 billion that separates their respective proposed budgets, taking $2 billion from the Senate plan and adding $2 billion to the House version, Senate Democratic leader Oscar Braynon told his caucus Wednesday morning. “There’s been a deal struck,” Braynon said. “Remember, a deal struck is nothing final,”…

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Rick Scott enlists state bonds chief in fight for Visit Florida funding

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Gov. Rick Scott has distributed a letter by Ben Watkins, director of the Division of Bond Finance, to the House and Senate budget chairmen, warning that cutting Visit Florida could damage the state’s credit rating. The letter, dated Tuesday, addressed to Jack Latvala in the Senate and Carlos Trujillo in the House, warns that cutting back on tourism promotion has harmed the economies of states that have attempted it, including Colorado and Pennsylvania. “Even a 2 percent reduction in visitors…

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Richard Corcoran: House and Senate ‘very, very, very’ close to budget deal

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The House and Senate were on the brink Tuesday evening of agreeing to a framework for negotiating s budget deal, House Speaker Richard Corcoran told the House. “We are very, very, very close to having allocations agreed to with the Senate,” Corcoran announced from the speaker’s podium, drawing cheers from the members. “And I mean close in the hand grenades sense, not the horseshoe sense,” he said. “To the extent that happens imminently, we’ll appoint conferees and make announcements, and…

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House ‘standard operating budget’ clears Appropriations Committee

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The House Appropriations Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to approve an $82.1 billion “standard operating budget,” in a move Democrats complained brought Washington-style dysfunction to Tallahassee. “I can tell you, we have spent every last, legitimate effort trying to compromise before we came to this point. It wasn’t for lack of effort. It wasn’t that we just grabbed our ball and went home,” Chairman Carlos Trujillo said. But the Florida Constitution gives the Legislature 60 days to write a budget, and…

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