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Big budget questions headed to House and Senate presiding officers

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House and Senate negotiators agreed on $40 million in water projects and a $23 million higher education budget Sunday, but major decisions on charter schools, Lake Okeechobee restoration, and more remained unsettled. Carlos Trujillo and Jack Latvala, respectively the House and Senate budget chairmen, made progress during what Latvala said would be their last meeting — although Trujillo said they’d meet once more, possibly on Monday morning. “We are going to have another conference committee only for the conforming bills,”…

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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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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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Appropriations chiefs sound hopeful as clock ticks on state budget negotiations

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With two weeks and change remaining in the 2017 Legislative Session, House and Senate budget leaders are professing optimism that they can resolve their differences and adjourn on time May 5. House Appropriations Chairman Carlos Trujillo — and Jack Latvala, his Senate counterpart — both said Thursday they hope to begin formal budget conference negotiations soon. “We have to. If not, we’re running out of time,” Trujillo told reporters. The process is driven by “just the natural timetable for sine…

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Jack Latvala argues revised Lake Okeechobee project defangs its critics

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If House leaders really oppose special interests they’ll support the Lake Okeechobee plan the Senate Appropriations Committee approved Wednesday, chairman Jack Latvala said following the vote. “When you hear their stated objections that they’ve made publicly, it’s always had to do with losing jobs or the amount of bonding involved,” Latvala told reporters. “We’ve pretty much removed those stated objections. Now it’s just going to have to come down to whether they’re going to follow the will of the special…

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Pam Bondi still a rock star with Florida’s GOP voters, new AIF poll shows

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Florida’s top lawmakers and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam are struggling with low name identification among likely Republican voters, but that isn’t the case for Attorney General Pam Bondi according to a new poll from statewide business advocate Associated Industries of Florida. The AIF poll of likely Republican voters obtained by FloridaPolitics.com found that 54 percent approve of the job the second-term Attorney General is doing, while just 12 percent have an unfavorable view and 17 percent said they had no opinion.…

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February poised to be busy month for fundraising for lawmakers seeking re-election

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February will be a busy month for state lawmakers hoping to raise a few bucks for their next campaign before the start of the 2017 Legislative Session. Several candidates will be holding campaign fundraisers in Tallahassee during back-to-back-to-back committee weeks this month. House Majority, the campaign arm of the Florida GOP, will host fundraisers for nine House Republicans, all of which are running for re-election, in the next few weeks. On Feb. 15, there is a fundraiser for Reps. Heather Fitzenhagen, MaryLynn Magar, Kathleen…

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