Renewed Special Session To Begin Oct. 3; Significant Budget Reform Progress Cited
Sep 13, 2007
This afternoon, in a joint memorandum to members citing “significant progress” on budget reform, Senate President Ken Pruitt and House Speaker Marco Rubio announced that the Florida Legislature will convene for a Special Session on Wednesday, October 3, 2007, through Friday, October 12, 2007.
Both the House and Senate have tentatively scheduled interim committee meetings for Thursday, September 27, 2007, and Friday, September 28, 2007.
All interim committee meetings for the preceding week of September 17 have been canceled.
The above-referenced joint memorandum and a statement from Governor Charlie Crist are attached for your review.
News coverage of the announcement from The Miami Herald is below.
Should you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact this office.
Legislature calls session for October
Posted on Thu, Sep. 13, 2007
BY GARY FINEOUT
gfineout@MiamiHerald.com
TALLAHASSEE — Florida legislative leaders announced late Thursday that they will hold a special session in early October to cut as much as $1 billion from the state budget.
In a statement sent out to all legislators, House Speaker Marco Rubio and Senate President Ken Pruitt said that “significant progress has been made to establish a general framework for reducing state spending.”
Lawmakers had planned to come back to the capital on Sept. 18, but they scrapped those plans last week because House and Senate Republicans disagreed on what and how much should be cut from the state budget.
The main dispute: Senators wanted to cut the budget roughly 4 percent across all areas, including schools, while House leaders wanted more ”targeted” budget cuts. House Republicans were also willing to look at diverting one-time money from road-building and environmental program accounts into other parts of the budget.
The special session will now run from Oct. 3-12. But a formal announcement won’t be released until next week.
Lawmakers passed a $71 billion state budget in May. But Florida’s real-estate slump has caused sales tax collection to sag below initial forecasts for the year. There is money in reserves to cover the shortfall, but legislators want to cut the budget this fall instead of waiting until the spring legislative session.
If legislators fail to act now, the shortfall will grow to $2.5 billion next year, state economic forecasters have warned.
Gov. Charlie Crist also wants legislators to act now and he unveiled his own mix of spending cuts and budget recommendations last week.
”I am pleased to hear of the recent progress in the Legislature,” Crist said Thursday. “I am encouraged and look forward to working with them to balance Florida’s budget as state law requires.
The timing of the session means it will come too late to stop the Oct. 1 sunset of Florida’s no-fault auto insurance law, but top lawmakers continue to try to work on a potential agreement on trying to revive it.