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Tom Lee - page 23

In last-minute budget talks, lawmakers add some $300+ million in new spending in dark of night

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At a final budget conference meeting that began at the tender hour of 11:05 p.m. and ran until nearly midnight, state budget writers failed to fully address new state funding for hospitals — the primary impetus for the June special session to begin with. But they did find time to load up the budget with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for new projects, most of which had never seen the light of day or public comment until late in…

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Florida Senate says no to Small Biz Saturday tax break

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Every smart shopper knows there’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The National Federation of Independent Business Florida wants to tuck “Small Business Saturday” between those days and has been advancing a proposal that would give shoppers a tax break for shopping locally owned, independent businesses. The tax holiday was in the House tax reduction package HB 33A, and economists predicted it would be a $40 million tax break between local and state taxes. The Senate–which had endorsed a similar proposal…

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As Rick Scott travels to Paris, lawmakers inch closer to final budget

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Gov. Rick Scott traveled to Paris on Friday aiming to bring back to his home state economic development projects. But while Scott is away House and Senate budget negotiators have reached a deal to give the governor considerably less money than he wanted for business recruitment. Sen. Tom Lee and Rep. Richard Corcoran on Saturday agreed to the transportation and economic development portion of the budget. Despite a fervent push from Enterprise Florida officials, the final deal calls for setting…

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Everybody’s working over the weekend, really

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Legislative leaders on Friday said the House and Senate budget chairs would continue to work over the weekend in order to bring the General Appropriations Act in for a landing. The goal is for a copy of the budget to be on lawmakers’ desks by Tuesday so they can wait the mandated 72 hours before voting on the bill. Friday was the initial deadline for state Sen. Tom Lee and state Rep. Richard Corcoran to “bump” any unresolved issue to Senate President…

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House and Senate agree on new LIP model

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Budget chairmen state Sen. Tom Lee and state Rep. Richard Corcoran early Friday came to terms on what was the biggest stumbling block during the 2015 session and what Lee called the “linchpin” of the budget: supplemental Medicaid funding. After working for days, the House made a Low Income Pool offer to the Senate that takes advantage of the full $1 billion in supplemental payments that the federal government advised Florida it would approve. That is a reduction from the current…

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Andy Gardiner lays out Senate schedule for remainder of session

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Senate President Andy Gardiner announced a few programming notes following a more or less pro forma floor session late Wednesday morning. Among them: The 6 o’clock rule — which has been broken a handful of times this conference season, including an 8:45 meeting of the Education budget panel — remains in effect whether budget chiefs Richard Corcoran and Tom Lee come to agreement today or not. Gardiner’s final offers were more likely to emerge tomorrow. There will be a brief 9 a.m. floor session, in order to…

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NW Florida hospital with high Medicare mark-ups could get $1 million from Legislature

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Fort Walton Beach Medical Center — included in the list of hospitals with some of the highest Medicare charges in the nation — could get a $1 million gift from the Florida Legislature. House and budget healthcare conferees on Tuesday made their best and last offer to settle differences between the House and Senate healthcare spending plans. Isssues that could not be resolved between conference chair state Sen. Rene Garcia and vice chair state Rep. Matt Hudson have been “bumped” to be resolved by the House…

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