House leaders Friday released an outline of how they would divvy up about $28.5 billion in general revenue next year as budget proposals start coming together.
As another sign of movement on spending plans, the House Education Appropriations Subcommittee and the House Transportation & Economic Development Appropriations Subcommittee – which is charged by local Rep. Clay Ingram – will discuss initial budget proposals from their chairmen Monday, according to the House calendar.
The outline released Friday indicates about $11.2 billion in general revenue would go toward pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade education, while nearly $8.3 billion would go to health care. The justice system part of the budget would receive nearly $4 billion, while higher education would get about $3.9 billion. Smaller amounts of general revenue would go to areas of the budget such as agriculture and natural resources and transportation and economic development. General revenue is only part of what could be a roughly $77 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. As examples, health care and transportation programs are heavily funded by other sources, such as federal money.
Also, the Senate likely will have different plans for how to divvy up general revenue — known in the Capitol as making “allocations” — with the two chambers needing to work out their differences during negotiations later in the legislative session.
source: The News Service of Florida
