Here we go: Legislators back to pass a budget
Florida Capitol in Tallahassee. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix)
The state's budget expires in 27 days and legislators are back in town to make sure there's a spending plan in place July 1 to avoid a government shutdown.
Leadership unveiled budget 'allocations' Monday night that show how the Legislature will spend about $50 billion in general revenue, or state funds, across various government agencies. Most of the money will go to two areas: education and health care with the former receiving more than $22 billion and the latter about $17.5 billion.
The budget will also include 2% pay raises for roughly 100,000 state employees.
Those workers won't have to worry about increased health insurance costs either because the chambers have agreed to pump hundreds of millions into the state employee health insurance trust fund to keep it solvent in lieu of increasing costs for state workers.
As a reminder, monthly premiums for most employees are set at $50 a month for individuals and $180 a month for families. Senior-level employees have an even better deal on their monthly premiums: $8.34 for individuals and $30 a month for family plans.
The pay raises were first reported by Florida Politics and confirmed in a statement the Senate released from Sen. Cory Simon, a Republican whose district includes Leon County, home to the state government and tens of thousands of its employees.
Simon praised Senate President Ben Albritton and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Ed Hooper for the investment in state employees calling it 'important for recruitment, retention, and morale.'
'Florida has one of the lowest per capita populations of state workers in the country. We have a lean, but strong and talented state workforce, and it's important to me that we invest in maintaining top talent to serve the people of our state.
'A pay raise for our hardworking and dedicated state employees has been a priority of the Senate throughout the entire budget process. The allocations finalized last week include funding for a 2% across the board pay increase for state workers ($1000 minimum). Also important, what often goes unseen is the significant investment the state is making in state employee health insurance. Again this year, employees are being held harmless from increases in premiums and copays,' Simon said in the statement.
'As we move forward into the conference, the Senate will continue to prioritize additional targeted increases for law enforcement, firefighters, and other professions where we need to further increase salaries to remain competitive with the private sector.'
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