The Senate and the House have met through the month of June in a series of Budgeting Conferences. The Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development/Transportation & Economic Development conference negotiated a proposed budget between the House and the Senate and on Tuesday, June 9th at 6pm the conference shared the 3rd and final version for that group.
Many issues were agreed upon and many were left to be bumped to the next round of negotiations by Senate Appropriations Chairman Tom Lee, and House Appropriations Chairman Richard Corcoran, in the next phase of budget negotiations, which are set to begin Thursday June 11th. The Senate included the Entertainment Action Fund of $10 million and the transfer of 5 Florida Office of Film and Entertainment employees to Enterprise Florida from the Department of Economic Opportunity, to which the House and Senate because of time constraints and limited funding at the committee level decided to bump up to the presiding officers to negotiate along with other critical economic development issues.
Upon the conclusion of the negotiations between Senator Tom Lee and Representative Richard Corcoran any additional unresolved issues will then again be bumped to be negotiated between Senate President Andy Gardiner and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli with a proposed budget vote date of Friday, June 19th. The budget will then need to be approved by Governor Rick Scott and be signed into law for the beginning of Florida’s fiscal year July 1st.
Please know that every effort is being made by our team to ensure that our issue remains part of these final negotiations. Film Florida along with our industry partners has made great strides this year to develop a program that addresses concerns while continuing to benefit Florida workers, businesses and the economy and those collaborative efforts have not gone unnoticed by our legislative leaders. This process is not over until the Senate President and House Speaker conclude their negotiations. For this reason Film Florida will continue to monitor the discussions and provide whatever information is requested of us.
Thank you for all your continued support and enthusiasm to retain the film, television and digital media industry in the state of Florida. We will keep you posted as we gather new information.