The Florida Legislative Special Session continues today in Tallahassee. In action taking place this week, the Florida Senate did vote to override vetoes of some $75 million in higher-education projects. A group of Florida 4-H youth and supporters were at the state capitol Wednesday hoping to encourage lawmakers to override Governor Scott’s veto of Florida 4-H funding. The Governor’s veto pen on the budget cut $1 million of recurring funding for 4-H, which of course will impact the program.
But according to Stephanie Farmer with Ag News Today, who was on hand to hear the list of the Senate veto overrides, while the University of Florida did get a $7 million over ride, UF/IFAS and 4-H were not included on that list.
And according to a story from the News Service of Florida, the override votes will not be successful without the House’s support. House Speaker Richard Corcoran and House Appropriations Chairman Carlos Trujillo said they have little interest in overriding the vetoes, saying they agree with the governor’s call to use the vetoed funding to support the public-school budget.
Trujillo said the 2017-18 budget passed last month by the Legislature put “hundreds of millions” of dollars into higher-education initiatives. He said the governor’s vetoes would allow lawmakers to shift some of that money to the K-12 system, which Scott said was inadequately funded in the budget.
Scott did call the special legislative session to boost spending on public schools and economic development. The session is scheduled to end Friday.
But efforts by those who have been working to support Florida 4-H and UF/IFAS funding are being thanked. We will now wait to see how the final budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1st comes out.
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