(The Center Square) – Florida legislative leaders have reached a deal for the state’s budget and a vote could be scheduled for Monday.

In a letter to members, House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, said the 72-hour review period will begin Friday evening and lawmakers will convene three hours on Monday before the vote is to take place. 

Budget conferees will hold a final meeting on Friday to complete work on the conforming bills, including the tax relief package, and the budget implementation bill.

Rep. Lawrence McClure, R-Dover, is the House Budget Committee chairman and said the aim was to put the state’s revenue situation on a positive trajectory with this year’s budget.

“The House is is very thankful for the Senate’s collaboration on on reimagining or recalibrating the spending practices of the state of Florida, and that isn’t ever an easy conversation, no matter in government or in business or, you know, in homes across the state, choices have to be made, right?” McClure said. “And we all come from different corners of this state with different experiences and different situations. And so that conversation took a little bit longer than expected.”

Senate Committee on Appropriations Chairman Ed Hooper, R-Palm Harbor, said no one in the capitol building wanted a government shutdown and that lawmakers worked, 12-, sometimes 16-hour days to ensure the state would get “responsible, balanced budget in front of the two bodies.”

According to the state constitution, a 72-hour “cooling off” period is required before a budget can be voted upon by both chambers. 

Lawmakers will appropriate $50 billion for general fund budget, which only includes state tax revenues such as the 6% sales tax.

Tax relief in the budget package could add up to about $2.25 billion that includes the elimination of the business rent tax ($900 million) and permanent sales tax exemptions ($350 million). 

Lawmakers adjourned on May 23 without a budget after 90 days of work in Tallahassee and had to reconvene in special session to come to a deal after a tentative agreement fell apart. The state’s new fiscal year begins on July 1. 

With federal and dedicated funds, such as the Florida Lottery, the total budget is likely to be about $119.8 billion.

(The Center Square) – The Supreme Court of Georgia has received the direct appeal involving Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ attempt to squash a Senate committee subpoena.

The Senate Special Committee on Investigations subpoenaed Wills to testify about her office’s prosecution of President Donald Trump and others. Willis fought the subpoena, but Fulton County Superior Court Judge Skukura L. Ingram denied Willis’ effort to quash it.

The Senate committee last met in March and decided to ask Willis’ attorney, former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, for some dates when Willis could appear.

“Let’s be nice guys again first,” said Chairman Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, said at the meeting. “Let’s reach out to her counsel and suggest either a Thursday or Friday beginning the last week of April, the first two weeks of May. And if they agree to a date, then we will issue a subpoena. And I believe they will honor their word.”

Willis has still not appeared before the committee.

The committee also instructed Josh Belinfante, an attorney representing the committee, to request that Willis be responsible for any of the attorney’s fees charged to the committee after May 10.

“Make her comply if she won’t, make her pay for your fees, make her do what the judge has already told her she’s got to do,” Cowsert said.

Willis was disqualified from the Trump case because of her personal relationship with the lead prosecutor. She is also appealing that decision.

Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill last month that would allow defendants to receive “reasonable court costs” if the prosecutor was disqualified from the case. Democrats said the bill was filed at the behest of Trump because of the Georgia case but Republicans denied it.

“There is absolutely nothing in this bill that focuses on a single county nor does it have a sunset for a single issue,” said Rep. Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta, who presented the bill in the Senate.

(The Center Square) – Tennessee lawmakers are questioning why two counties with virtual schools are reaping thousands in state funding at the expense of the state’s other 93.

Union and Johnson counties have the most significant percentage of the state’s 59 virtual schools, according to information presented at Thursday’s meeting of the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.

The virtual students were counted as attending school in Union and Johnson counties, even though they could live elsewhere.

“The effect of including their virtual school students in the fiscal capacity calculations, keeping all else the same, was an increase in state funding for Union and Johnson counties and decrease in state funding for the other 93 counties,” research director Michael Mount said in his presentation.

Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville, said the state should have a way of knowing where the virtual students reside.

“It’s strange to me that we’re calculating it this way when every other student is calculated based on where they reside,” Campbell said.

The Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement that took effect in the 2023-24 school year is calculated using base funding, weighted funding, direct funding, and outcomes funding. The base funding is $7,205 per student for the 2025-26 school year.

Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, said he didn’t think virtual schools should be a “money maker.”

“I think we’re creating a dangerous incentive system on the virtual education side that we should be very careful about doing especially based on their current low performance in the state,” he said.

Two virtual schools in Johnson County received “D” grades according to 2024 performance metrics published on the Tennessee Department of Education website. The county’s population is 17,982, according to the 2024 County Data Package from the Department of Health.

The virtual Tennessee Connections Academy for grades 9-12 has 1,496 students and received one of the “D” grades. Johnson County High School has 599 students, according to the Education Department.

The Tennessee Connections Academy for grades 4-8 also received a “D” and has 1,315 students. The county’s four elementary schools and its middle school have a combined enrollment of 1,238 students, according to the education department.

Commission Chairman Ken Yager, R-Kingston, said the questions raised are important. He asked the executive director to prepare a separate report on the issue for the commission’s next meeting.