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Florida lawmakers are on the verge of ending their annual legislative session on time and fulfilling their one constitutional duty…passing a state budget. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, schools got most of the extra money this year.

The 82 point three billion dollar budget is a record. It spends about four thousand one hundred and fifteen dollars for every man woman and child in the state. Senate Budget Chairman Tom Lee told the Senate they should be proud of the budget.

“And we’re are still enjoying growth in our state. None-the-less, we wanted to make sure we lived within our means, took the long term view” says Lee.

Schools take up the bulk of the new spending. 35 thousand addition students are expected  to hit school next year, but lawmakers were still able to increase per student spending by one percent or 71 dollars a student. Sen. Don Gaetz said lawmakers  heard the Governor when it came to tuition hikes.

“And this budget agreement includes no tuition increases for students  at tech centers, colleges, or universities” says Gaetz.

The state is also putting up the cash to avoid a tax hike by local school boards. The owner of a hundred thousand dollar house should save about 290 dollars. A backlog o more than 10 thousand rape kits will start to go down, but Sen. Joe Negron says a total clearing of the backlog will not come quickly.

“the goal is to is it to take no longer than three years to test all of the sexual assault kits that are in the backlog” says Negron.

While the budget funds increases in almost every category, the stateis pulling down the welcome mat for new businesses.

Reluctant House Republicans killed the economic funding. Sen. Jack Latvala called it the biggest disappointment of the session.

“There was no sense of compromise. There was no offer of money in the middle from the House”

The money was one of Governor Rick Scott’s top priorities. He’s said to be sharpening his veto pen with an eye on projects sought by the House Republicans who blocked the development cash.

Last year, Governor Rick Scott vetoed 461 million dollars in member projects. It was seen at the time as a re-election booster, but the year before, he vetoed just 68 million.