Legislature approves budget and ends session Florida lawmakers adjourned their 2014 election-year session late Friday, approving in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants, legalizing a strain of marijuana for limited medical use and expanding corporate tax credits that allow poor children to go to private schools. They also overhauled child protection laws, allowed a noncitizen to practice law, banned sales of e-cigarettes to minors and set up a pecking order for sales tax rebates for sports stadiums, including a possible major league soccer facility in Miami. In a session aimed at shoring up Gov. Rick Scott’s re-election prospects, Republicans stayed on course. They rolled back car tag fees, pumped more money into public education and used the immigrant tuition issue to appeal to disaffected Hispanics whose votes are vital to Scott’s political future. As the night dragged on and lawmakers sipped from white foam cups, they adopted a $77.1 billion budget — the largest in state history. It’s fortified by more than $1.2 billion in extra sales tax revenue from a surging economy that will increase school spending by 2.6 percent next year. The budget spends $18.9 billion on public schools, the most ever and an increase of $176 per student, to $6,937. That’s still below the record 2008 level of $7,126 per pupil. Democrats said the Republicans’ signature failure was their refusal for the second consecutive year to consider an expansion of Medicaid in a state that ranks second to Texas in the number of people with no health insurance. As the last day of lawmaking got underway, a group of clergy, single moms and others issued a call for action, but the issue was dead before the session began. “The Legislature turned its back on those who work hard but cannot afford proper healthcare,” said the Rev. Brant Copeland, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee. “We’re not going to forget. We think the Legislature can do better.” miamiherald/2014/05/02/4095046/legislature-set-to-ok-77-billion.html m.apnews/ap/db_268748/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=gPTbGUE2
Posted on: Sun, 04 May 2014 20:06:54 +0000
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