TALLAHASSEE --- While House members have proposed spending more than $7 billion on projects and programs, Speaker Paul Renner is pushing “conservative” spending as the budget is put together over the next two months.
“We're going to continue on the path we're on,” Renner said Wednesday at a Florida Chamber of Commerce event. “We're going to be conservative on the budget this year, even though we don't have to, because doing it now means that we'll be in the catbird seat when a downturn comes.”
It remains to be seen what that means for more than 2,800 projects and programs, from assisting cultural organizations to building educational facilities and railroad right-of-way, that House members are seeking to fund — at a total cost of $7.1 billion.
Separately, 2,200 proposals, many overlapping with the House, have been submitted by senators, carrying an overall $5.2 billion price tag.
Those requests are on top of tens of billions of dollars in big-picture spending on programs such as schools, health care, prisons and transportation.
Last year, senators made 2,288 requests, totaling $5.63 billion, while House members made 2,333 requests that would have required $5.36 billion.
More than 1,500 legislator requests made it in the budget that lawmakers sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis last spring. The governor vetoed $510.9 million in spending, including 309 individual lawmaker projects totaling $324.3 million.
DeSantis has pitched a $114.4 billion budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, which will start July 1. Lawmakers will use that proposal as a starting point as they negotiate a budget during the legislative session that started Tuesday.