budget

Miami's government might raise parking rates across the city for the first time since 2009, in some cases by as much as $1.50 per hour. The reason city administrators give for the hike is simple: The city needs more money.

The amount of increase would depend on the neighborhood. Some high-demand areas such as downtown, Brickell, and Wynwood would see greater hikes than Little River, Calle Ocho and Coral Way, widening the gap between rates in different parts of the city.

In a rare Sunday overtime session, the Florida Legislature passed a budget of nearly $89 billion for next year to end a session that was overshadowed by the mass shootings in Parkland.

Lawmakers needed extra time to finish a budget after the mass shooting in Parkland forced them to quickly craft a response that included a three-day waiting period, a minimum age of 21 to buy a gun in Florida, and $400 million for mental health, school safety and a program that allows school personnel to carry concealed weapons.

Nursing homes will get a $130 million bump in Medicaid payments, and residents who live in the facilities will get nearly a 25 percent increase in a monthly stipend they can use for personal needs, under a state budget deal finalized Thursday.

Under the spending plan, the state during the upcoming year would spend $37.1 billion across six state health-care and social-service agencies. Nearly $9.9 billion of that amount would be state general-revenue tax dollars, compared to the $9.4 billion during the current year.

The Senate is set Friday to approve a business-friendly tax package that would allow Floridians to buy tax-free clothes and school supplies during three days in August and tax-free hurricane gear at the start of June.

The $168.6 million package, if passed by the Senate, would still have to go back to the House for approval before the end of the legislative session, now likely to be Sunday. The Senate on Thursday made changes to a House bill (HB 7087) to offer shorter tax “holidays” and a smaller cut in a business-lease tax.

Florida Supreme Court justices are in line for a 24 percent pay raise in the new state budget.

The 2018-2019 budget, which is expected to be approved Sunday, would provide $42,180 raises for the seven justices on the state’s highest court, increasing their salaries to $220,600.

Lawmakers said a factor in the raise is that three vacancies will have to be filled in January as longtime justices Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince leave the bench because of a mandatory retirement age.

As Miami-Dade County prepares for public input on its budget, a local non-profit is teaching residents how to advocate for the causes they care about.

Going through Miami-Dade’s $7 billion budget can be a daunting task for the average citizen. 

That is why Florida New Majority says it created a series of workshops to teach the public how to find information in the voluminous budget document.

Gov. Rick Scott continued Monday to criticize legislative budget-slashing of the state's tourism marketing as he announced a record-setting quarter of visitors to Florida.

Still Scott hasn't indicated what he'll do with a new $82.4 billion state budget when it lands on his desk. "I’ve got a lot of options. I can veto the whole budget, I can veto a portion of the budget, a line of the budget, I can do special session, so I’m looking at all those options," Scott told reporters at a press conference at Miami's Jungle Island.