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Amendment 1 - page 6

House, Senate still divided over major budget items

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Florida legislators tried over the weekend to hammer out budget decisions on everything from hospital spending to money for Everglades restoration. But as they slogged through spreadsheets, proviso language and dollar amounts fault lines quickly developed between the House and Senate over everything from member-backed projects, education policy and whether to borrow money to pay for land acquisition and other environmental projects. Some legislators had been hopeful that they could reach a deal on the budget by the end of…

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AIF’s H2O Coalition says budget conferees should oppose state land buying efforts

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The business-backed Associated Industries of Florida’s H2O Coalition — ahead of Saturday morning budget conference meetings where lawmakers from both chambers will negotiate to create a final budget proposal for Gov. Rick Scott‘s consideration — weighed in on the ongoing budget talks, signaling their opposition to funding for acquisition of ecologically sensitive land favored by environmentalists. AIF’s Senior Vice President for State and Federal Affairs Brewster Bevis issued a statement on behalf of the pro-industry water policy advocacy group in which he said the state…

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Finally… chambers set for Saturday conference on budget starting at 9 am

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The Florida Senate was in 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 beging hammering out the differences in the proposed spending plans for the 2015-16 fiscal year beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday. Those were the only details that Gardiner, or his usually chatty budget chair state Sen. Tom Lee, divulged early Friday. In other words, they didn’t…

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Amendment 1 getting short shrift because of LIP battle

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The multibillion-dollar healthcare fight has been “sucking the oxygen” out of the Capitol and has taken attention off Amendment 1, Senate Appropriations Chairman Tom Lee said on Tuesday. Lee, the Senate’s chief budget writer, told reporters following an Appropriations Committee hearing Tuesday afternoon that “frankly, Amendment 1 is a big deal and deserves more attention than it’s gotten.” Florida voters in 2014 overwhelmingly approved Amendment 1, a water and land conservation initiative that is expected to provide almost $740 million for programs…

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Today on Context Florida: Conservatives, evangelicals, Art Teele and dedicated doctors

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Today on Context Florida: Elections are complex organisms, with personalities, money, luck, strategy and a hundred other variables in play, says Diane Roberts. Some people who voted for Florida’s worst governor also voted for the best initiative in decades, Amendment 1. Are they “conservatives”? No. Some just don’t get it: never underestimate the power of sheer slack-jawed cluelessness. But just as everybody with a blog can now call herself a journalist, anybody can redefine words like “conservative,” and to hell with…

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Bruce Ritchie: Environmentalists think lack of legislation could be a good thing

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As I was sitting in the press gallery looking down into the darkened Senate chambers on the last day of the 2015 Legislative session, I was reminded of how the environment usually seems to lose amid debate and controversy. The O.J. Simpson trial. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Michael Jackson’s death. A police shooting in Ferguson, Mo. When these incidents happen, discussion and debate about environmental issues gets pushed off the evening news and forced into the back pages of…

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Diane Roberts: The unavoidable subject of stupid

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OCCUPIED TALLAHASSEE – Which is worse: stupid and evil or smart and evil? It’s a thought experiment: you can apply it to, say, George W. and Jeb Bush, Rick Scott and Adam Putnam, the Florida House and – Jesus, those idiots don’t deserve to be in the same paragraph as the word “thought.” But while we’re on the unavoidable subject of stupid: remember the amendment to the state constitution passed by an overwhelming margin last year? You probably voted for…

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