General Overview  



This week, the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate passed their recommended budgets for the State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2023-2024. Each legislative chamber’s recommended state budget serves as an important statement of their priorities as work on developing a balanced state budget continues. The Florida Legislature is constitutionally required to pass a state budget, officially titled as the General Appropriations Act, during the annual regular session. 

The House and Senate’s proposed budgets for SFY 2023-2024 total approximately $113 billion and $113.7 respectively. The chart below summarizes a comparison of the House’s proposed SFY 2023-2024 budget and the Senate’s proposed budget for SFY 2023-2024. 

Health and Human Services received the largest portion of funding for the House and Senate’s proposed budgets for SFY 2023-2024, totaling approximately $46.8 billion and $47.3 billion respectively. All educational programs and services combined received the second largest proportion of funding, totaling approximately $28.5 billion and $28.8 billion respectively.   

Finally, Natural Resources, Environmental Issues, Growth Management and Transportation Expenditures represent the third largest portion of the House and Senate’s proposed budgets for SFY 2023-2024 with funding totaling $21.6 billion and $21.9 billion respectively.  

Proposed general revenue expenditures for House and Senate SFY 2023-20234 budgets equal approximately $43.2 billion and $44.2 billion respectively, while trust fund expenditures total approximately $69.8 billion and $69.5 billion respectively. The chart below compares expenditures between the proposed House and Senate SFY 2023-2024 budgets by fund type. 

Shared County/State Juvenile Detention: The House and Senate proposed budget estimates the counties’ portion of total Shared County/State Juvenile Detention to be $70.4 million. 

Community Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services: Funded at approximately $1.03 billion in the House proposed budget and $1.4 billion in the Senate’s proposed budget. 

Community Action Treatment (CAT) Teams:  $41.6 million the House and Senate budget directed to the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to contract with providers throughout the state for operation of CAT teams, which provide community-based services for children (aged 11 to 21) with mental health and/or substance abuse diagnoses.  

Public Safety, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse Local Matching Grant Program: $9 million for the program in both the House and Senate budgets, which supports county programs that serve adults or youth who are in behavioral crisis and at risk of entering the criminal justice system.  

Crime Labs: The House and Senate proposed budgets allocate approximately $71.4 million and $67.1 million respectively, in grants and aids to local governments for criminal investigations. 



Homeless Programs Challenge Grants: The House and Senate proposed budgets allocate $20 million and $16.8 million respectively, to DCF for challenge grants, which are awarded to lead agencies of homeless assistance continuums of care. 

Water Quality Highlights: 

Septic-to-Sewer Improvements: The House allocated $200 million and $100 million in the Senate, provides wastewater grant program for projects to construct, upgrade or expand wastewater facilities, to provide advanced wastewater treatment and to convert from septic to sewer, as established in section 403.0673, F.S. 

Water Quality Enhancement and Accountability: The House and Senate budgets allocate $10.8 million for provided for increased water quality monitoring, the creation of a water quality public information portal, and for the establishment of the Blue-Green Algae Task Force. Funds may be used for administration and planning costs. The task force will support key funding and restoration initiatives to expedite nutrient reduction  in  Lake  Okeechobee and the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries. The task force will identify priority projects for funding that are based on scientific data and build upon Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs) to provide the largest and most  meaningful nutrient reductions in key waterbodies, as well as make recommendations for regulatory changes. The Senate budget specifically allocates $4,000,000 in nonrecurring funds is provided to the Department of Environmental Protection to continue to expand statewide water quality analytics for the nutrient over-enrichment analytics assessment and water quality information portal. 

Water Quality Improvement Grant Program:  

• The House and Senate allocate $50 million for reductions in harmful discharges to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Estuaries (Everglades) 
• The House and Senate allocate $104.9 million and $25 million respectively for improvement projects within the proximity of the Indian River Lagoon.  
• The House and Senate allocate $20 million for septic to sewer and wastewater projects, that will improve the water quality of Biscayne Bay. 

Total Maximum Daily Loads: 

• The House and Senate allocate $50 million and $25 million respectively to DEP for innovative water treatment projects that demonstrate the ability to most rapidly achieve department verified phosphorous and/or nitrogen load reductions consistent with the nutrient load reduction goals and total maximum daily loads established by the department. The department may also provide cost-share funding for innovative nutrient removal projects. 

Harmful Algal Blooms: The House and Senate allocate $15.6 million for innovative technologies and short-term solutions for addressing harmful algal blooms in fresh waterbodies; funds may also be used for the red tide emergency grant program and to support local government efforts in cleaning beach and coastal areas. Funds may also be used to implement water quality treatment technologies, identified by the department, near water control structures in Lake Okeechobee. 

Springs Restoration: The House and Senate proposed budgets allocate $50 million from the Land Acquisition Trust Fund for land acquisition to protect springs and for capital projects that protect the quality and quantity of water that flow from springs. 

Alternative Water Supply: The House allocates $50 million and the Senate allocates $40 million to the water supply and water resource development grant program to help communities plan for and implement conservation, reuse and other water supply and water resource development projects. The House includes language to provide priority funding to regional projects in the areas of greatest need and for projects that provide the greatest benefit. The department shall identify and research all viable alternative water supply resources and provide an assessment of funding needs critical to supporting Florida’s growing economy. 

Florida Forever: House $175 million, Senate $75 million

Florida Recreation Development Assistance Grants: House $11.2 million; Senate $10 million.   

Beach Management Funding Assistance Program: The House and Senate allocate $50 million provided to the Department of Environmental Protection for distribution to beach and inlet management projects consistent with any component of the comprehensive long-term   management plan developed in accordance with section 161.161, Florida Statutes. Funds may be used in accordance with section 161.101, Florida Statutes, for projects on annual ranked lists, storm repair projects, or projects on lands managed by the state. Additionally, both chambers appropriated $106 million for beach erosion recovery projects related to Hurricanes Ian and Nicole, to fully fund DEP’s Hurricanes Ian and Nicole Recovery Plan for Florida’s Beach and Dune Systems.  

Hurricane Ian and Nicole Relief: The House and Senate allocate $25 million and $350 million respectively to provide resources to fund gaps in: mitigation of local and county revenue losses and operating deficits; infrastructure repair and replacement, including road, sewer, and water facilities; beach renourishment; and debris removal for hurricane and recovery of Hurricane and Nicole.  

Resilient Florida Grant programs: The House and Senate allocate $300 million and $120 million respectively to the allocated Department of Environmental Protection for the Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience Plan, years one through three, as submitted to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives on December 1, 2022, pursuant to section 380.093(5), Florida Statutes. In the event that projects included in the plan are unable to continue or if excess funds are identified by completed projects, the department may reallocate funds to projects on its Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience Plan to the next project on the ranked list or to projects already funded in year one that have identified funding needs in subsequent years. Additionally, the House and Senate both allocate $20 million for planning grants to fund preconstruction activities.  

Mosquito control programs: The House and Senate proposed budgets allocate approximately $2.7 million. 



Piney Point - The House and Senate allocate $85 million appropriated to the department of Environmental protection to continue the stabilization, water treatment, and closure of the Piney Point facility. 

Affordable Housing:  

• State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) program: The Legislature appropriated $252 million respectively, for the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP), as part of the affordable housing package signed into law, SB 102.  
• State Apartment Incentive Loan Program (SAIL): The Legislature appropriated $259 million for the State Apartment Incentive Loan Program (SAIL), as part of the affordable housing package signed into law, SB 102. 
• Hometown Heroes Housing Program: $100 million makes homeownership affordable for eligible frontline community workers such as law enforcement officers, firefighters, educators, healthcare professionals, childcare employees, and active military or veterans, as part of the affordable housing package signed into law, SB 102.

 

Job Growth Grant Fund: The House proposed budget allocates $25 million. The Senate proposed $75 million.  

Visit Florida: $80 million recommended by the Senate. The House did not allocate any funds for Visit Florida.  

Transportation Disadvantaged Grants and Aids: The House and Senate proposed budgets allocate approximately $62.4 million and $60.4 million. 

Small County Outreach Program (SCOP): The House and Senate proposed budgets allocate $94.1 million and $94 million, respectively.  

Small County Road Assistance Program (SCRAP): The House and Senate proposed budgets allocate approximately $28.4 million and $28.5 million.  

Rural Economic Development:  



• Broadband: The House and Senate allocate $100 million for Florida’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program (BEAD), which funds broadband Internet planning, deployment, mapping, equity, and adoption activities with a goal of providing high-speed, reliable broadband Internet service access to all Florida communities. 
• Digital Equity Grant Programs: The House and Senate allocates $12.9 million for the Digital Capacity grant to help support Local Technology Planning Teams for broadband Internet and public awareness for digital literacy efforts.  
• Rural Infrastructure Fund: The House allocates $9 million, and the Senate allocates $30 million to support local rural infrastructure projects such as broadband, roads, storm and wastewater systems, and telecommunications facilities. 

Library Grants and Library Cooperatives: The House and Senate proposed budgets allocate $21.5 million. 

Fiscally Constrained County Funding: Both the House and Senate budgets allocate $58.1 million, to offset the impacts of previously approved constitutional amendments. 

The House and Senate allocate an additional $20.1 million for mitigating deficits in the Fiscally Constrained Counties and Fiscally Constrained Counties Conservation Lands. 

Emergency Distributions: The House and Senate budgets allocate $33.8 million in emergency distributions revenue sharing for small counties. 

The House and Senate allocate an additional $3.5 million from the Local Government Half-Cent Sales Tax Clearing Trust Fund for emergency distributions. 



Cybersecurity: The House budgets allocate $40 million in local government cybersecurity technical assistance grants. The Senate has no allocations.  

Appropriations Implementing and Conforming bills make certain changes to substantive law in order to implement the proposed General Appropriations Act. Implementing and Conforming Bill topics include: 

SB 2508- State Cybersecurity Operations 

The bill transfers the Cybersecurity Operations Center (CSOC) and its associated duties, responsibilities, contracts, unexpended balances of appropriations, allocations, and positions from the Florida Digital Service (FDS) within the Department of Management Services (DMS) to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) via a type two transfer.  

The FDS maintains primary responsibility for establishing enterprise cybersecurity policies and guidelines in consultation with the state chief information security officer. The FDS is also tasked with assessing and monitoring agency compliance with the cybersecurity governance framework. In accordance with the recommendations of the February 1, 2021, Florida Cybersecurity Task Force Final Report, the bill also requires state agencies to conduct comprehensive risk assessments on an annual basis instead of once every three years. 

While the Senate passed SB 2508 unanimously, the House refused to concur on the Senate changes to the state cybersecurity operations. 

FRS Contribution Rates 

The House and Senate amended the employer contribution rates for the Florida Retirement System (FRS) in their respective conforming bills, HB 239 – Florida Retirement System and SB 7024 – Retirement.  



Employer normal contribution rates for each membership class of FRS are amended as follows: 

In order to address unfunded actuarial liabilities of the system, the required employer retirement contribution rates for each membership class and subclass of the Florida Retirement System for both retirement plans are as follows: 

Lastly, allocations from the Florida Retirement System Contributions Clearing Trust Fund to investment plan member accounts are as follows: