The Legislature approved a budget a shade more than $70 billion Friday, allowing lawmakers to leave the Capitol one time even as a Supreme Court ruling ensured they would return.
The measure passed the House on a party-line, 80-37 vote. The Senate followed suit just minutes before the session concluded with a bipartisan, 32-8 vote.
The spending plan adds more than $1 billion in state funding to public education — a key goal of Gov. Rick Scott, even though school districts have argued that the money doesn’t make up for a series of cuts to public education in recent years.
It drains $300 million from university reserves to help close a budget gap. And it slashes some health care services at the same time a conforming bill forces counties to pay millions of dollars in disputed Medicaid charges.
But as they debated the spending measure, Democrats returned to the same refrain that they have sounded often as the state’s economy has lagged and revenues have dwindled: Republicans are stubbornly refusing to get rid of unneeded tax relief or accept money because of its ties to President Barack Obama’s agenda.
Lawmakers turned down $438.5 million in federal health care funding because it was tied to the federal health care bill Republicans derisively call “Obamacare.”
“This Legislature can find the will to dip into universities’ reserves to fund and plug gaps, but it is unwilling to take funds from the federal government or to close loopholes where people are not paying their fair share,” said Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich (D-Weston).
In the end, seven of the 12 Democrats in the Senate voted with the Republican majority, while three Republicans bolted their party to oppose the measure.
Meanwhile, in the House, Speaker-designate Will Weatherford (R-Wesley Chapel) scolded Democrats for locking down against a budget that included many of their suggestions and projects.