The Florida Legislature's overtime session may not last too long.
- Senate, House struggling on details of $83 billion budget
- Sen. President Negron says budget will not be ready for Friday vote
- Legislative session will go into overtime
- House passes medical marijuana bill, still bans smoking
- CAPITOL CONNECTION: Latest News | Contact your Florida legislators
It appears lawmakers have agreed on a deal behind closed doors to allow the legislature to wrap up its work for the year.
Senate President Joe Negron and House Speaker Richard Corcoran announced that the Legislature will extend its annual session to Monday. Lawmakers will gather Monday for a 1 p.m. vote on bills and the budget.
The session was supposed to end on Friday.
Legislative leaders also said that they will only consider the budget and budget-related bills during the three-day extension.
Lawmakers failed to get the $83 million budget completed Tuesday, prompting the issue of not being able to end the session on Friday. Florida law requires that the budget be completely finished 72 hours before a final vote can be taken.
Negron and Corcoran and other top Republicans worked out the details of the budget in secret.
They announced that a deal had been worked out late Wednesday morning.
Some of the issues lawmakers have been grappling with:
A $200 million plan to create "Schools of Hope." That's Corcoran's ambitious plan to shift students from chronically failing schools to charter schools run by private organizations.
Lawmakers are still dealing with the possibility that Gov. Rick Scott will veto it. Scott has sharply criticized his fellow Republicans for failing to set aside money this year for his top priorities, including $100 million for the agency that does tourism marketing and $200 million to repair a dike that surrounds Lake Okeechobee.
Scott also wanted money for incentives to lure businesses to the state.
Another thorny issue: hospital funding.
The Senate and House could not agree how to portion out $650 million in proposed cuts to the state's hospitals and whether to switch to a new payment formula for nursing homes.
In 2015, the session ended abruptly over a push by Senate Republicans to draw down federal aid and expand Medicaid.
Legislators were forced to come back a month later to pass a budget and keep state government open.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.