On Friday, lawmakers in the Sunshine State struck a deal on how to spend the $2 billion dollars in hospital funding for the new budget that begins on July 1.
By doing so it shows they are moving forward with their negotiations and may potentially end the special session next week as scheduled.Currently, House and Senate negotiators are racing to finish up their work so they can vote on the budget before June 20. That is the conclusion of the regular session and ten days before the state needs to have a spending plan to divert a shutdown.
Since the federal government is reducing the amount of aid they give hospitals for low income patients, Florida lawmakers have decided to use state money to offset the short fall.
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Senate President Andy Gardiner said:
Governor Rick Scott’s office has voiced opposition to using state tax dollars to make up for the short fall from the federal government. They currently are reviewing the proposal.It’s important . . . that we provided some stability in the health-care system for hospitals to understand that, yes, Low Income Pool is going to change, but we’re going to make a financial commitment on the state standpoint to help in that transaction, and that’s what we did. Once that was done, I think that’s a huge step forward.
With hospital funding hopefully out of the way, the focus can be shifted to education policy provisions. That would include some education policy provisions that the Senate wants to place into a budget-related bill.
Gardiner and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli said budget chiefs will continue their negotiations through the weekend.
They released the following joint statement:
We look forward to using this last week of the special session to finalize a balanced budget and deliver broad-based tax reform legislation. We look forward to an on-time finish.