TALLAHASSEE — Tick tock.
That’s the sound of the state budget clock you hear ticking and the prime motivation for House and Senate members — who are currently deeply divided on a $4 billion budget difference — to reach a deal on a new spending plan.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott addresses a joint session of the Florida Legislature, Tuesday, March 3, 2015 during his State of the State address in the Florida House of Representatives. (AP ARCHIVE)
The current $77 billion state budget runs out of money at midnight June 30. It means a new balanced budget must be in place when July 1 starts, otherwise there is no funding for schools, health care, transportation, law enforcement and the host of state employees and programs that rely on those dollars.
It’s the reason why the appropriations bill is the only measure that the Legislature must pass each year. “No money shall be drawn from the treasury except in pursuance of appropriations made by law,” the state Constitution firmly says.
What happens if there is no budget on July 1? It’s a very rare occurrence. But it has happened.
The last time was in 1992 when Gov. Lawton Chiles was locked in a bitter impasse with legislative leaders — particularly the Senate where the rising tide of Republicans was resisting the governor’s call for a $1.35 billion tax package to revive state programs that had been slashed in two years of a prior economic downturn.
Chiles vetoed two budgets advanced by the Legislature, with the last veto coming on June 26, just days before the start of the new budget year. In his last veto message, Chiles said the $31 billion budget “fails the citizens of Florida.”
July 1 started without a state budget. It led to a scenario leading up to that day where Chiles had to urge state workers to voluntarily come to work, with the promise of retroactive pay. Some state offices and parks were closed.
But lawmakers scrambled to reach a deal with the governor that was struck in the early morning hours of July 1. A little after 5 p.m., a budget bill was on Chiles’ desk and he signed it. The governor got only $560 million in tax and fee increases but it was enough for both sides to declare a victory.
The impasse meant the state operated for a little more than 17 hours without a budget.
In this year’s impasse, lawmakers still have plenty of time before the July 1 deadline. As of Monday, they will have 12 days left in their 60-day regular session before the May 1 deadline. But legislative leaders say they anticipate an extended or special session will be needed to resolve the budget.
Ron Saunders, who was the House budget chairman during the 1992 session, said moving the deadlocked budget to a separate session may help lawmakers resolve their differences.
“By getting everything else out of the way and focusing on the budget, you can in some ways speed up the process,” said Saunders, a Key West Democrat.
Lawmakers are waiting for a decision on the fate of a $2.2 billion hospital funding program from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Once they have that hospital number, they can try to forge a budget agreement, although it will be difficult if the funding is a $1 billion or less as some anticipate.
But while running over the July 1 budget deadline is rare in Tallahassee, budget impasses are common.
It’s one of the reasons why the annual 60-day session was shifted in the early 1990s from its traditional April-May timing to a February start that was later adjusted to March, which is now used by lawmakers.
The idea was to provide more separation between the start of the budget year and the annual negotiations and passage of the budget bill. It gives schools, health care programs and other state agencies that rely on the funding more time to make adjustments for the start of the new year — assuming a new budget is in place.
