Florida lawmakers have wrapped up the second day of a three week special legislative session, a rare gathering that amounts to overtime in Tallahassee. However, the House and Senate remain far apart on the session's primary goal of passing a state budget.
Tuesday, the House Finance and Tax Committee approved a $400 million tax cut package that's emerged as the top priority for the lower chamber's Republican leaders. Among other things, it would slash the taxes on cell phone and pay television bills, returning a little under $1 a month to the typical Florida family.
"An improving economy, better jobs, help for the vulnerable - that is the high water that is going to raise all the boats," said the committee's chairman, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Ft. Walton Beach). "That's what's going to improve Florida."
Across the Capitol, though, Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee railed against Justin Senior, Gov. Rick Scott's Medicaid czar, who failed to appear initially for a hearing on Medicaid expansion. The Senate's GOP leaders are shepherding a plan that would accept $51 billion in federal Medicaid expansion funding to cover 800,000 low-income Floridians. House leaders say the ten percent share of the cost of expansion the state would have to bear amounts to a $5 billion "tax" on Floridians.
"You know where you're supposed to be today and it's right here in this committee room!" Sen. Tom Lee (R-Brandon) thundered at Senior. "Not your agency, neither your boss, has been helpful to this discussion at all," he added, referring to Gov. Scott, who has flip-flopped on Medicaid expansion and now opposes it.
The Senate plans to approve its Medicaid expansion proposal Wednesday. Friday, the plan will be brought to a vote in the House, where it's widely expected to fail.