\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe budget does not include across-the-board raises for state employees. State law enforcement will receive a 4% raise, while corrections officers will get a 1.5% cost-of-living increase.Students will see an increase in per-student funding, with $279 more allocated per year, bringing the total to $9,400 annually. Some argue this increase is insufficient.”I think an area where I have a lot of concern is public education,” said Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Dist. 42.”That is not enough to meet the demands of our educational system. Florida ranks in the bottom when it comes to teacher pay,” Eskamani said.The Lee County School District stated that the funding increase does not resolve its budget deficit due to declining enrollment and rising operational costs. The district confirmed that cuts will continue.The budget also includes $514 million for Everglades restoration and $250 million to replenish the emergency response fund, which had been partially depleted to pay for immigration enforcement.Lawmakers agreed to a $150 million tax cut package, which does not include gas tax relief that Democrats had advocated for. As for the tax package now before lawmakers, the biggest part of the bill is a three-year exemption from sales taxes on impact-resistant windows and doors. The home hardening effort is expected to cut state and local revenue by $45.3 million in the next fiscal year. Additionally, $75 million will go toward the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, providing life-saving medications to low-income Floridians living with HIV.One item not funded in the budget is security for Gov. Ron DeSantis after he leaves office. However, both chambers agreed to provide security for the Democratic and Republican nominees following the August 18 primary.DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment, and original programming on your TV.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tFORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The budget does not include across-the-board raises for state employees. State law enforcement will receive a 4% raise, while corrections officers will get a 1.5% cost-of-living increase.<\/p>\n
Students will see an increase in per-student funding, with $279 more allocated per year, bringing the total to $9,400 annually. Some argue this increase is insufficient.<\/p>\n
“I think an area where I have a lot of concern is public education,” said Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Dist. 42.<\/p>\n
“That is not enough to meet the demands of our educational system. Florida ranks in the bottom when it comes to teacher pay,” Eskamani said.<\/p>\n
The Lee County School District stated that the funding increase does not resolve its budget deficit due to declining enrollment and rising operational costs. The district confirmed that cuts will continue.<\/p>\n
The budget also includes $514 million for Everglades restoration and $250 million to replenish the emergency response fund, which had been partially depleted to pay for immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers agreed to a $150 million tax cut package, which does not include gas tax relief that Democrats had advocated for. <\/p>\n
As for the tax package now before lawmakers, the biggest part of the bill is a three-year exemption from sales taxes on impact-resistant windows and doors. The home hardening effort is expected to cut state and local revenue by $45.3 million in the next fiscal year. <\/p>\n
Additionally, $75 million will go toward the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, providing life-saving medications to low-income Floridians living with HIV.<\/p>\n
One item not funded in the budget is security for Gov. Ron DeSantis after he leaves office. However, both chambers agreed to provide security for the Democratic and Republican nominees following the August 18 primary.<\/p>\n
DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment, and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The budget does not include across-the-board raises for state employees. State law enforcement will receive a 4% raise,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9935,2497,104,28,30,49630,29,1179,121154,16288,213,25904,121153,1184,60828,121152,221],"class_list":["post-285613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-budget","tag-education-funding","tag-entertainment","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-lawmaker","tag-florida-news","tag-gulf-coast-news-app","tag-impact-resistant-window","tag-increase","tag-late-news","tag-raise","tag-sale-taxis","tag-security","tag-state-employee","tag-tax-cut-package","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}