TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Legislature agreed on a $101.5 billion state price range Tuesday, a determine that was unfathomable a yr in the past because the financial system collapsed throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
The price range proposal contains $6.7 billion in federal COVID-19 reduction cash that Republican legislative leaders beforehand mentioned they would not depend on. Gov. Ron DeSantis initially proposed a $96.6 billion price range. The Senate’s first proposal was about $95 billion and the Home was in search of about $97 billion.
However income estimates have exceeded expectations, largely as a result of the state has eradicated restrictions on companies throughout the pandemic and tourism has rebounded. And Republican leaders lastly determined to incorporate cash permitted to assist states since Democratic President Joe Biden took workplace, after initially saying they would not.
“We’re actually in a greater place right now than once we began our price range planning final summer season. Income estimates have continued to enhance,” Republican Senate President Wilton Simpson mentioned in a information launch.
The present state price range is about $92 billion, and state official by no means anticipated so as to add one other $9 billion in a chaotic financial system attributable to the pandemic.
So who advantages? State employees, for one. Florida will elevate the minimal wage for presidency employees to $13 an hour. That provides them a headstart on non-public workers. Voters final yr permitted a constitutional modification that can finally elevate the state minimal wage to $15 by 2026. In September, it’s going to improve to $10 an hour.
