Florida state legislature approves state’s biggest budget ever

The Florida state legislature on Monday approved the largest budget in state history.

The financial plan for fiscal 2022-2023 allocates a total of $112.1 billion, which is 10 percent larger than the budget for the current year, and uses roughly $12 billion more than the proposal Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) put forth in December, according to Bloomberg.

The Senate approved the budget in a unanimous vote after the House gave the plan the green light in a 105-3 vote, according to the Miami Herald.

The budget proposal now goes to DeSantis, who has the power to impose line-item vetos, Bloomberg noted. The governor thanked the legislature for passing the budget during remarks Monday morning.

Key tenets of the budget include funds to increase the Florida minimum wage for state workers to $15 an hour and a 5.38 percent raise to make up for inflation, and $800 million to boost the salaries of teachers, according to Bloomberg. A part of the $800 million for teachers will be set aside for districts to help them increase minimum base salaries for teachers.

Additionally, the financial plan calls for a gas tax holiday to be held for a month in October, according to Bloomberg. Lawmakers are reportedly planning to subsidize the $200 million lost from the holiday with stimulus money the state received from the federal government.

DeSantis also called for a gas tax holiday in his proposed budget, but that one was more prolonged and would have cost $1 billion, Bloomberg noted.

The budget approved by the state legislature also portioned out more than $3 billion from the federal stimulus money Florida received from the American Rescue Plan, Bloomberg reported: $1.4 billion will go towards construction and deferred maintenance at Florida colleges and universities, $400 million will target broadband expansion and $200 million will support the Resilient Florida grant program that awards climate resiliency projects with funds from local governments

The budget also allocated $645 million to crate a prison with 4,500 beds, $115 million to fix the state capitol complex and $100 million to restore the Everglades, according to Bloomberg.