Lawmakers Go Home...
For Now
by. Bruce Kershner, Government Affairs Consultant
n less than three months, lawmakers
will find their way back to Tallahassee to start interim committee meetings leading up to the opening of the 2016 Legislative Session which convenes on January 12. Those meetings will start on September 16. Many legislators are weary after completing a 20-day special session to wrap up work left unfinished. The 2015 regular 60-day Session came to an abrupt end in April with the Legislature failing to pass its only required piece of legislation – a budget. On June 1, the House and Senate convened in a Special Legislative Session to complete work on the budget as well as addressing the use of federal Medicaid funds to offer private health insurance to uninsured Floridians and the funding of the Low-Income Pool (LIP) to reimburse hospitals for indigent care.
The Special Session began with the Senate quickly sending the House their Florida Health Insurance Affordability Exchange (FHIX) bill. The House, after a seven hour debate, defeated the
proposal leaving the funding of LIP to be resolved in budget talks. Other major issues dealt with during the Special Session included the governor’s request for $600 plus million in tax cuts and funding for the Water and Land Conservation Amendment (Amendment 1) approved by the voters in November. In the end, the tax cut package was trimmed to $427 million and over $470 million was included in the budget for land and water programs for Amendment 1 much to the chagrin of environmentalists who wanted the money used to buy more land.
In the end, the two chambers agreed on a $78.7 billion state budget ending the marathon 2015 Session, including a three-week-long Special Session. The fate of the budget then moved to hands of Governor Rick Scott who took swift action. The governor wasted little time in taking action. Governor Scott had until Monday, June 30 to act on the budget and avoid a partial state government shutdown. Four days after receiving the budget, he signed it into law but not
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