About 130 people caught each year driving with suspended licenses could avoid state prison time under a plan approved Wednesday by a Senate committee to lessen penalties for the crime and free up prison space.
LEGISLATURE
In a move that one Miami nursing-home operator called a return to the ''dark ages,'' Republicans in the Florida House of Representatives want to suspend a state law that mandates how much care nursing-home patients must receive each day.
BUDGET CRISIS | SENATE
Florida would stop providing hearing aids and dentures for poor people, limit Caesarean procedures for poor mothers, and eliminate jobs in the state agency responsible for protecting kids from child abuse under a far-reaching budget proposal unveiled Wednesday by the state Senate.
FLORIDA SUPREME COURT
In unusually alarming terms, the Florida Supreme Court's chief justice told state lawmakers Thursday that a nearly 10 percent budget cut to the state court system would be tantamount to ''murder,'' ''suicide'' or a ``spear to the heart.''
STATE BUDGET
The easy part is over. Florida lawmakers on Wednesday gave swift approval to $512 million worth of cuts to the current year's budget, despite complaints from Democrats that the GOP-controlled Legislature did not consider tapping into reserves as a way to ease the impact of the trims.
The top lobbyist for Miami-Dade's hotel industry wants restaurants to help solve Florida's budget woes with a new 2 percent tax on food and beverage sales.
FLORIDA LEGISLATURE | BUDGET
Public defenders' offices across the state, faced with having to furlough workers for as long as 79 days, will probably be able to keep their staffers employed, after state legislators Thursday found enough money for payrolls.
KEY WEST
On paper, it's only a 4 percent cut. But the Florida Legislature's plan to trim $463,166 for its statewide PACE centers for at-risk girls will likely mean the closure of the Key West school.
STATE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Divided sharply along partisan lines, the Florida House voted Wednesday to slash more than $500 million from public schools, community colleges and the state's courts.
STATE OF THE STATE
After moving the annual State of the State speech to 6 p.m. so Floridians could watch their government in action, Gov. Charlie Crist turned his 30-minute address into a laundry list of his initiatives, making scant mention of the state's economic turmoil or solutions for getting the state out of its jam.
STATE BUDGET
With their numbers and clout growing as the economy shrinks, Democratic legislators began the 60-day legislative session on the offensive Tuesday, bashing the Republicans who run the Legislature for mismanaging the economy, the state budget and Florida's future.
In speeches that seemed two worlds apart, the two leaders of the Florida Legislature opened up the 2008 lawmaking session Tuesday with fundamentally opposite approaches over what troubles the state's economy or how to fix it.
COVER STORY
After years of budgetary plenty, this is the year of scarcity for Florida lawmakers as they begin their regular legislative session on Tuesday.
LEGISLATURE | BROWARD DELEGATION
The year's bleak budget forecast already has lawmakers around the state preparing for a rough session, and that could mean stormy relations between Broward's heavily Democratic delegation and the GOP-controlled Legislature as each party suggests different ways to make up the multibillion dollar shortfall.
LEGISLATURE | MIAMI-DADE DELEGATION
Miami-Dade state lawmakers came home last year trumpeting one of their most successful legislative sessions, enhanced by the fact that the powerful position of House speaker was held by Miami's Marco Rubio. They passed $150 million worth of projects for the county, and several delegation members held key committee posts.
LEGISLATURE 2008
With state tax collections in freefall and the budget on a record-breaking decline, Florida lawmakers not only must pass a scrawny budget as they convene for their annual session this week, they must try to avoid having it reshape the political landscape for years to come.
STATE LEGISLATURE | FLORIDA BUDGET
State lawmakers are poised to slash more than $350 million from schools -- forcing layoffs in some districts before the end of the school year in June -- in an effort to balance the current year's budget, shrunken by withering sales-tax collections.
FLORIDA BUDGET
Fresh off a major tax-cut victory at the polls, Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday proposed a $70 billion state budget that relies on schools to collect more property taxes, raids dedicated trust funds and depends on more money from gambling to avoid deep cuts.
BROWARD SCHOOLS
Even if voters fail to approve a constitutional amendment to lower their property tax bills, Florida school districts can expect their budgets to be slashed during next spring's legislative session.
FLORIDA LEGISLATURE
Florida's economy, which forced a $1 billion cut in the state budget just weeks ago, is sputtering so badly economists gave lawmakers more grim news Wednesday: Prepare to lose another $2.5 billion over the next 18 months.
