Budgets were passed out of the House and Senate and conferees were named during the seventh week of the legislative session. Senator Fred Dudley offered two amendments that are detrimental to the SUS. One specifies that the 5% carry forward of prior year unexpected appropriations shall be used as a first priority to match private funds received as Challenge Grants. The other appropriates Sponsored Research overhead to be used as matching money for the Facilities Matching Challenge Grants, which for FSU would be the Pep per Center and the University Center Hospitality Management. Hopefully, these amendments will be addressed again during the conference process.
Conference meetings will begin this week, when the real budget work begins. Like last year, the House and Senate budgets are miles apart in how to spend the dollars, but they are also philosophically and structurally different.
Additionally, a federal court ruled last week that a congressional district in Jacksonville be redrawn. The panel mandated the Florida Legislature redraw the district by May 22, or the courts will do it for them. This means a reapportionment special session in the near future.
As always, I welcome your comments and questions. Please feel free to contact me at 644-4453 or e-mail kdaly@govrel.fsu.edu.
Kathleen Daly
Quote of the Week
Senator Howard Forman urged his fellow committee members to restore some of the social services cuts by trimming some of the increases off criminal justice and education. "We all agree that we aren't going to raise taxes, that these are austere times. All I want to do is spread the pain around. Why brutalize social services?"
Budget Shifting Away from Aid to Poor
The Orlando Sentinel, April 12, 1996
April 22-26, 1996
House
Monday, April 22 10:00am-12:00pm &
1:45pm-4:30pm
Tuesday, April 23 9:00am-12:00pm &
1:30pm-3:00pm
Wednesday, April 24 9:30am-12:00pm &
1:30pm-5:00pm
Thursday, April 25 9:00am-12:00pm &
1:30pm-3:30pm
Friday, April 26 9:30am-12:00pm
Senate
Tuesday, April 23 9:00am-10:00am
Wednesday, April 24 10:00am-12:00pm
Thursday, April 25 10:00am-12:00pm
*The Committee Substitute will create the Economically Disadvantaged Student Assistance Grant Program to coordinate available financial aid resources to enhance assistance for economically disadvantaged students, increase the maximum award value for Florida Student Assistance Programs, decentralize the administration of state financial aid programs to the postsecondary institution level, make part-time students eligible for financial aid, and direct the completion of an integrated student aid data base. The bill will also revise requirements for the Florida Academic Scholars' Certificate Program and for the Florida Gold Seal Vocational Endorsement Program.
*The Committee Substitute would delete the option for a student to exempt the testing requirements of the College Level Academic Skills Test ing Program (CLAST) for work completed in high school. It would delete a requirement that the student must pass the College Entry Placement Test to exempt CLAST. In addition, it would eliminate the requirement that a student must participate in CLAST as a condition of renewing financial aid awards.
There is a comparable bill moving through the House, House Bill 2671 by the House Higher Education Committee and Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. Committee Substitute/Senate Bill 3040 has been placed on the calendar and is awaiting a hearing.
The Senate Higher Education Committee and Senator Matthew Meadows is sponsoring Committee Substitute/Senate Bill 2822. The bill creates a program to award scholarships to students and incentives to colleges and universities for increasing the number of minority teachers in Florida public schools. Proposed changes include:
*Minority students enrolled in teacher education programs at a public or nonpublic college or university would be eligible to receive a $4,000 scholarship. The scholarships would be divided equally among public and nonpublic colleges and universities operating teacher education programs.
*The program would be administered by a non-profit corporation called the Florida Fund for Minority Teachers, housed in the College of Education at the University of Florida.
Additional incentives are offered if certain criteria are met.
Committee Substitute/Senate Bill 2822 has passed out of the Senate Higher Education Committee and is now in the Senate Ways and Means Committee. There is no House companion.
Florida State University
Governmental Relations
Kathleen Daly, Director
110 Westcott Building
Tallahassee, FL 32306