House and Senate budget negotiators have revised a plan that called for shifting $200 million away from school districts — including Duval County's — that required students to wear masks last year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But lawmakers weren’t able to complete negotiations on all the budget items that will make up the $100 billion-plus state budget, which means the regular session will be forced to go into overtime.
The initial version of the education funding plan, labeled the Putting Parents First Adjustment, was swapped Tuesday for what is being called the School Recognition Program, which would offer rewards to districts that followed state mask directives.
The change came as House Appropriations Chairman Jay Trumbull, R-Panama City, and Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, continued to negotiate budget details in the final week of the 2022 legislative session.
Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, and House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, issued a memo shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday that said budget talks would continue Wednesday.
State law requires a 72-hour “cooling off” period before lawmakers can vote on the budget. That means the budget needed to be finished Tuesday for the session to end as scheduled Friday.
“When the budget is on the desk, and the 72-hour clock has started, we can determine the specific timeline for a concurrent resolution to extend session to vote on the budget and related bills,” the memo said. “Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work together to meet our constitutional obligation to pass a balanced budget for our state.”
The agreement on the new school recognition program came as talks continued over issues involving public schools, higher education and agriculture and natural resources, including gaps in spending over resiliency projects and land preservation.
The school recognition plan still involves $200 million. However, that money would be placed into a reserve fund and distributed to school districts that did not impose student mask mandates in accordance with directives from Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The initial plan to shift money away from school districts would have been included in the main funding formula for public schools. The $200 million would have been redistributed to the 55 districts that did not impose mask mandates.
Trumbull called the new plan “much more clean” and said the 12 districts that imposed student mask mandates will be ineligible to receive the financial boosts.
Those 12 districts are in Alachua, Brevard, Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Indian River, Leon, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Sarasota and Volusia counties.
Lawmakers are expected to ultimately agree on a budget that will top $100 billion for the fiscal year that will start July 1. The scheduled 60-day session started Jan. 11.
Simpson said negotiations on the budget could be completed Thursday, setting up final votes on the package Monday.
“We may or may not be here Friday, but we will certainly come back Monday, I believe, to vote on the budget,” Simpson said. “We will debate it. We will have everything ready to go and probably come about noon Monday to vote on the budget, and that would be the final act of business.”