Florida Legislature OKs emergency budget to be revamped in post-coronavirus special session

By John Haughey
The Center Square
March 16, 2020

Florida lawmakers this week will adopt a temporary $92 billion budget that sets aside at least $300 million for coronavirus response and boosts state reserves above $3.8 billion.

As of Sunday afternoon, remaining uncertainties included when, exactly, the Legislature would approve the plan – Wednesday? Thursday? Friday? – if lawmakers could “phone in” votes rather than reconvene, and when they’re likely to meet in a special session before the fiscal year begins July 1 to make adjustments as circumstances dictate.

For all bills but the budget – which is being changed as circumstances dictate – the 60-day legislative session otherwise concluded as planned Friday.

Legislation left on the table are, thus, dead. They include House Bill 1, Rep. Jaime Grant’s measure regarding unions; HB 3, Rep. Michael Grant’s occupational licensing preemption bill; HB 7065, the school safety package implementing Marjory Stoneman Douglas Commission recommendations.

Of the House’s $120.5 million proposed tax cut package, only $47.7 million remains in the proposed budget.

Among bills headed to DeSantis’ desk is a measure to allow college athletes to earn compensation, to expand taxpayer-funded school choice voucher programs, to grant a 3-percent pay raise for state employees beginning in October not July, and an agreement to increase minimum teacher salaries to $47,500.

The pact reached Saturday allocates $500 million toward teacher pay raises – $400 million to boost base salary to $47,500 and $100 million for other pay raises.

Some districts won’t meet the $47,500 minimum salary right away, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, acknowledged, but the move delivers on DeSantis’ pledge that 2020 would be “the year of the teacher.”

“We landed at a place where everybody won,” he said. “This is the year of the teacher. The governor promised it, the promise was kept.”

For other parts of the budget, however, the fast-moving coronavirus emergency that emerged two weeks ago as a $25 million budget blip has mushroomed into a multi-dimensional crisis that will require $300 million now and maybe more in a special session presumably after the virus peaks, and before the new fiscal year begins, perhaps May or June.

“There are resources there if the governor needs them,” Bradley said. “We were very aggressive with reserves. We’re over $3.8 billion in reserves. We are prepared when it comes to dealing with any potential economic downturns.”

In addition to responding to the immediate COVID-19 outbreak, lawmakers are also trying to soften effects of the slowdown rippling across every sector of the economy – especially tourism, the state’s largest industry.

State economists estimate nearly $7 billion of the $30.4 billion in revenues the state collects this fiscal year will be tourism-related. Lawmakers used those projections in drafting the budget they are days away from adopting – projections that may no longer be valid.

“We may be coming back in coming weeks as we evaluate the economy and the impact to our budget,’’ House Appropriations Committee Chair Travis Cummings, R-Fleming Island, said.

DeSantis praised lawmakers for delivering a flexible plan in a relatively timely manner.

“I wanted to thank the Legislature for powering through,” he said Saturday.

Several lawmakers Friday questioned the wisdom of returning to Tallahassee after spending five days through Tuesday in home districts.

House Speaker José Oliva, R-Hialeah, said he would research options but statute is explicit.

“We must be here present in order to vote on this budget,’’ he said.

He decried “hysteria,” noting “a great deal of people [are] acting in extreme ways. There’s no real way to fully understand what the impact of the decisions of very large companies and theme parks have done.”