Legislative Update

The Legislature convened last month with the Governor’s State of the State address. And the primary message was to provide more corporate tax relief in the form of a $1 BILLION tax cut and creation of a new $250 million Florida Enterprise Fund. These proposals are all purported to be for the purpose of creating higher paying jobs ian Florida. Higher education was not mentioned once in the Governor’s address as if higher education has no role in providing higher paying jobs for its citizens.

UFF certainly cannot support any such programs unless public education get its fair share, and that cannot happen when the Governor is willing to diminish Florida’s tax base even further. We must stand against these proposals and let the Legislature know that funding for K-12 and higher education will go further to meet our state’s long term goals.

This session report will update you on the more significant legislation impacting our colleges, universities and YOU, the UFF membership! Watch for UFF Action Alerts regarding pending legislation during the weeks ahead.

Budget Process

2016-2017 Budget Conference

The House and Senate began meeting in conference committee over this past weekend. The education conference subcommittee met twice in an effort to resolve differences in their respective bills. The two houses will continue meeting in subcommittees until they reach agreement or pass unresolved issues to the full Appropriations Committee chairpersons. The Appropriations chairs will negotiate until the budget is completed or will pass on the unresolved issues to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House.

Once they reach agreement, the final version of the budget will be printed and “hit the desk” starting the clock on the required 72 hour cooling off period before the final vote by both chambers. After that, the bill goes to the governor, who has line item veto power, but he must sign the bill within 7 days of receiving it.

Appropriations

The House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees completed the first step of the 2016-17 budget process when they introduced their respective Chair’s recommended budgets on January 28. The highlights of the budgets as it pertains to higher education are as follows. Note: Tuition for Florida colleges is not included in the state appropriations below but estimates are at approximately $1.2 billion or an increase of $37 million.

[Updated 2/29/2016]

Guns on Campus

HB 4001 by Rep. Greg Steube/SB 68 by Senator Greg Evers UFF opposes this legislation to allow carrying of concealed weapons on college and university campuses. UFF concurs with the vast majority of faculty, students and law enforcement that prohibiting firearms on college and university campuses, except by trained law enforcement and security officers, is an essential element of an overall campus safety plan.

Senate Bill 68 is still being held in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Judiciary Committee will not be meeting again so it appears HB 4001 and SB 68 are once again dead this legislative session.

[Updated 2/29/2016]

Fee Waiver For Graduate Assistants

HB 1311 by Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasalinda/SB 1230 by Senator Maria Sachs Graduate assistants provide meaningful teaching and research functions at most of our state universities. UFF supports these bills which provide graduate assistants with fee waivers. The bills are not identical. HB 1311 waives financial aid fees, technology fees, fees for security, access or identification cards and fees relating to the use of facilities. SB 1230 would waive all fees. The fee waivers will assist thousands of graduate assistants with added financial support to supplement their stipends for teaching and/or research.

It appears these bills are in need of resuscitation and, unfortunately, probably will not be heard again this session. We are still working with bill sponsors to see if the content of the House bill might be added to other legislation that might pass this session. A likely bill could be the legislation addressing affordability of college and textbooks. However, the bill sponsors would have to be amenable to adding the language to assist graduate assistants.
[Updated 2/29/2016]

Textbook Affordability

HB 7019 by Rep. Elizabeth Porter/SB 984 by Senator John Legg UFF has worked on these bills as they have passed through their higher education committee references. Both bills have the compromise 45-days before the first day of class provision for posting textbooks or instructional materials on the college or university website.

Both bills passed their respective committee this week. Jennifer Proffitt spoke to a concern in the bill during the House committee meeting. Marshall Ogletree addressed our concern with the Senate committee.

See UFF position paper on textboook affordability.
[Updated 1/29/2016]