Florida Legislature 2005 (click for ongoing coverage)

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House, Senate still on road to growth management deal

By DAN DeWITT
Published May 6, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - Negotiations on what could be a historic growth management deal will continue today after a small group of lawmakers failed Thursday evening to reach agreement.

Four members from both the House and Senate met in a conference to try to settle differences between conflicting proposals approved by the two chambers.

The biggest divide remains local taxation.

The Senate wants to expand the right of counties to raise sales and gas taxes. It also has added a provision to allow school boards more power to increase local taxes. The Senate bill requires the money raised from these new taxes to be spent in designated urban areas.

The House, as members repeatedly made clear in a debate Thursday, adamantly opposes that effort.

The two sides moved closer on another divisive issue, commonly called "pay and go."

The House originally wanted to allow developers to build along any road as long as they met various requirements and paid a transportation impact fee. The purpose of the measure, supporters said, is to protect builders from paying more than their share of infrastructure.

But a new version of the bill approved by the House on Thursday requires developments to comply with counties' long-term road building plans.

The Senate, meanwhile, moved toward agreeing with the House on how to spend the transportation money, designating about $200-million to be spent on roads in urban areas. The House's original proposal was to spend $450-million in such areas.

The two chambers agree on the general issue of money. They both want to spend $1.5-billion this year and $750,000 annually in the future for roads, schools and water supplies.

They also have agreed on providing services for new development. For the first time in state history, water and schools will be included in the list of services that must be provided for development.

And the gap between permitting for developments and completion of roads would drop from five years to three.

[Last modified May 6, 2005, 00:37:10]