Florida entered a new fiscal year with the largest state spending plan in its history after Gov. Rick Scott signed the $82.3 billion budget into law late on a Thursday night. The signing came with a catch: Scott simultaneously struck $256 million in line-item spending that lawmakers had tucked into the bill, using the line-item veto power available to Florida governors.
The budget reflected a growing state economy and rising tax collections, but it also set up a familiar end-of-session standoff between the governor's office and the Legislature over which local projects deserved funding.
A record spending plan
At $82.3 billion, the budget topped every prior Florida state budget and was built around sizable increases in K-12 education funding. Public schools received roughly $20.2 billion, pushing per-student funding to about $7,718. The plan also included $713.5 million for education construction and maintenance projects and $151 million directed toward Everglades restoration work.
Scott had pushed lawmakers to approve roughly $250 million for an economic incentive fund meant to help the state compete for corporate relocations. The Legislature largely rejected that request, and the total value of Scott's vetoes, about $256 million, landed close to that same figure.
What got cut
Scott's line-item vetoes targeted dozens of local and university projects rather than broad program categories, including nearly $15 million for a proposed technology education center at Eastern Florida State College and $8.3 million earmarked for the University of Central Florida to renovate its engineering building. Other vetoed items included smaller local requests such as a jail project and community arena funding.
How Florida's budget process works
Florida's constitution requires the Legislature to pass a balanced budget each year. Once lawmakers approve the spending bill, the governor can sign it, let it become law without a signature, or strike individual spending items through a line-item veto, a power available in Florida in a way it is not under the federal budget process. The Legislature can override a veto with a two-thirds vote in each chamber, though overrides are rare.
This structure gives Florida governors significant leverage over the final shape of the budget even after legislators have finished negotiating it, a recurring feature of the state's fiscal calendar.