Where House, Senate budgets differ on Tampa Bay priorities
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Florida's House and Senate unveiled competing budget proposals last week that put dozens of local projects up for negotiation.
Why it matters: Tens of millions of dollars in Tampa Bay projects are caught between the two chambers — including a $50 million campus overhaul at Hillsborough College that would make room for a new Rays stadium.
- Here are a few key differences between the House and Senate proposals:
The big picture: The House budget totals $113.6 billion, compared with the Senate's $115 billion. Where the two overlap on Tampa Bay projects, the amounts often differ, sometimes by millions.
🔎 Zoom in: The House budget doesn't include Hillsborough College's multi-million-dollar makeover, but that's partly by design: the college requested the money only through the Senate.
- With Gov. Ron DeSantis in its corner, Hillsborough College has reason to feel good about its chances of making it into the final budget.
State Rep. Adam Anderson and State Sen. Ed Hooper sought $15 million from the state to overhaul East Lake Road, a congested roadway frequented by commuters from Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties.
- The House left it out, while the Senate halved it.
Missing from the Senate's budget are $2.5 million toward construction at Hillsborough County's African American Arts & Cultural Center and $2 million for emergency generators across Pinellas County.
- The projects were filed in both chambers, but only the House included them, at half the requested amount.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office requested $10 million for a state-of-the-art training center for recruits and experienced personnel alike, but neither chamber funded it at that level.
- The House halved it, and the Senate designated only $350,000.
What's next: The Legislature has until March 13 to finalize a budget. Last year, differences between the two chambers took several weeks of overtime to reconcile.
- And projects still have to survive DeSantis' line-item veto.