House and Senate remain deadlocked on budget

Gary Fineout, 04/14/2010 - 06:29 PM

There is still no clear sign when the House and Senate plan to begin formal budget negotiations, a sign that legislative leaders remain deadlocked on whether to pass a budget that would include the use of nearly $1 billion in still unrealized federal money.

The House and Senate passed strikingly different budgets that vary in many ways little and small but most importantly are out of line by nearly $3 billion dollars. The Senate budget counted on money from a gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida as well as money from a higher federal matching rate for Medicaid. but unless Congress acts, the state will lose the higher matching rate at the end of 2010.

Congress is still considering extending the higher matching rate until the summer of 2011, but it’s not clear when that measure would actually pass. Legislators are scheduled to end session on April 30 but due to the state’s constitutionally required 72-hour cooling off period the budget must be on the desks of legislators by April 27. That gives them less than two weeks to get everything worked out.

Sen. JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales and the Senate budget chief, says the Senate has suggested passing a budget that makes appropriations contingent on the extra federal money. If more money comes down from the federal government, the Legislative Budget Commission could then handle it, said Alexander.

“That’s the big angst, how you do count it?” said Alexander on Wednesday. “It’s not exactly been done before. We have done similar things, not just to this magnitude.”

Some House Republicans are apparently suggesting that the only way they could along with the Senate proposal is to spend the extra federal money on one-time expenses and not on ongoing programs.

Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami and the House budget chief, was very coy with reporters on Tuesday and was unable to say when negotiations would begin. Rivera, however, said he remained confident that lawmakers would resolve the budget differences by April 30.