Toll credits, local projects part of budget deal

Senate Appropriations Chairman Doug Broxson, R-Gulf Breeze, and House Appropriations Chairman Tom Leek, R-Ormond Beach, completed the final fine-tuning of the spending plan. The total amount of spending was not immediately clear, though it will be included when the full budget document is released Tuesday.

“I’m looking forward to putting a bow on this present,” Broxson said as talks ended.

The release Tuesday will start a required 72-hour “cooling off” period before lawmakers can vote on the budget. That would allow the legislative session to end as scheduled Friday. The 2024-2025 fiscal year budget will take effect July 1.

Among the largest late additions Monday was a $450 million plan to bring back a credit program for frequent toll-road users. The program would last for a year, starting April 1, and provide 50 percent credits to motorists who make 35 or more toll-road trips a month.

Leek was asked by a reporter about whether the governor’s office requested the toll program. He responded that the request was “warranted.” He indicated the financing of the credits will be addressed through a tax package, which has not been finalized.

“The question is where it was going to come from,” Leek said. “And I think that all gets resolved in the tax package.”

A similar year-long credit program in 2023 saved motorists about $470 million.

Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez hinted in November that the program could be part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ budget recommendation, but it did not emerge until Monday.

Conference committees negotiated various parts of the budget before turning over unresolved issues to Broxson and Leek late last week. Among the biggest roadblocks were hundreds of proposals by lawmakers for money to take home to their districts for such things as cultural, environmental, educational and transportation projects.

Leaders on Monday agreed to lists that included 121 projects sought by House members and 172 sought by senators. Examples included $1.75 million for the 2025 World Masters Athletic Indoor Championship in Alachua County, $2 million as part of converting the Legacy Baptist Campus in Pensacola into mixed-use housing, $5.5 million to expand the Cape Coral Emergency Operations Center and $20 million for the JaxPort crane modernization program.

Broxson estimated the Senate list totaled $200 million.

A separate list of water projects approved over the weekend, with some 270 projects, totaled $350 million.

The Senate over the weekend also accepted a House proposal on education capital-outlay projects totaling more than $1.19 billion. That included $602 million for projects at state universities, such as $45 million for the University of Florida’s Semiconductor Institute and $5 million to boost security at Florida A&M University.

The education portion of the budget was largely resolved before Monday. The spending plan includes $28.4 billion for public schools and more than $200 million to continue efforts to raise teacher salaries.

Numerous higher-education projects would get money under parts of the budget resolved Monday, including $9 million for a Discovery and Innovation Hub at the University of Central Florida, $2.8 million for Florida State University’s newly established Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases and $2 million for the Max Planck fellow program at Florida Atlantic University.

Also added to the spending plan on Monday was $1.5 million for agents who protect the governor and First Family. The funding is to cover a 5 percent pay increase on top of a 3 percent raise state employees are slated to receive.

At the same time, the spending plan doesn’t include a House proposal to bulk up the pay of future governors, state Cabinet members and judges starting in fiscal year 2027-2028, which would be after DeSantis’ term expires. Several senators had voiced objections to the increases, which for the next governor would have added more than $110,000 a year to the current salary of $141,400.