The Florida Legislature passed the largest ever General Appropriations Act at $101.5 billion for Fiscal Year 2021-2022. $6 billion was placed in the reserves and $350 million into the budget stabilization fund.
Florida received $10 billion from the American Rescue Plan. Several environmental projects, infrastructure improvements, K-12 construction and deferred building maintenance will be underway in the coming months utilizing these federal funds. Additionally, first responders, teachers, principals, child care and early learning instructors will receive a $1,000 bonus payment. The state’s marketing agency will get a $25 million boost in addition to the $50 million in general revenue funds. And, the CONNECT system for reemployment assistance will receive $56 million for improvements and upgrades.
Outlined below are the funding levels for the various areas of the FY 2021-2022 budget.
The Legislature filed 3,140 bills and proposed committee bills as compared to 3,578 last year. New rules allowed House members to file seven bills instead of six. And, appropriation requests in the House also are considered bills, accounting for 1,060 of the total number. The Legislature passed 275 bills with 26 already signed by Governor DeSantis.