Lawmakers break 10-day budget impasse; will start meetings today
by Michael C. Bender | April 28th, 2009
State lawmakers will need an extra week to finalize the state budget after House and Senate leaders emerged this morning from 10 days of closed-door meetings to announce they reached a deal on spending.
Senate President Jeff Atwater and House Speaker Larry Cretul said they reached an agreement on spending for education, health care and other areas of the budget, but did not immediately release details.
Instead, they updated lawmakers on a new schedule that will extend the scheduled end of the annual spring session from Friday, May 1 to Thursday, May 7. They announced any issues outside of the budget must be completed by Friday.
“Floridians will be very impressed by (the deal) given the tough financial times we’re in,” Atwater said.
Asked if Floridians should be disappointed a deal wasn’t reached on time, Gov. Charlie Crist said, “A little bit.”
Here’s the schedule:
*Budget conference committees start today at 4 p.m. and run through Friday at noon.
*From there, budget chairmen take over outstanding issues until Sunday at noon.
*At high noon on Sunday, any remaining issues will be negotiated by Cretul and Atwater so the budget can be printed Monday.
*Budgets will be ready on Tuesday and lawmakers will return for final vote on Thursday, May 7.
Tags: state budget
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June 24th, 2009 at 8:24 am
[...] that criticism, Republican leaders in the House and Senate spent 10 days behind closed doors this spring hashing out details of the state’s $66.5 billion [...]