HB5003 provides statutory authority to implement the $117.5 billion General Appropriations Act passed by the Legislature for FY 2024-25.
The Senate passed H5003 on March 8, 2024, by a vote of 39 to 0. We have assigned pluses to the nays because the 2024-25 state budget contains profligate amounts of illegitimate taxation and spending. As passed by the Legislature, it exceeded the previous year’s budget bill by more than $430 million. Despite the Governor’s line-item vetoes, it provides a massive and unnecessary $28.4 billion in funding for the failing K-12 government school system. It also relies heavily on federal dollars, with these funds comprising about 33% of the overall budget. This includes continued participation in the Florida Medicaid program, which has over 4 million recipients. It’s possible only though immoral and anti-constitutional methods of taxation (e.g., income or property taxes) that take from citizens the wages they have rightfully earned. Floridians should rein in big government and reckless, out-of-control spending.