Advocacy

The Legislature reached the halfway point on the 2020 Regular Session this Wednesday, and its all downhill from here. The Fiscal Year 2020/21 Budget is set for conference negotiations between the House and Senate as early as late next week (more likely the week of February 24^th at the earliest). There were no changes made by the Legislature to the line items for seaports and they remain as reported previously:

1. Line Item 1920 — $15 million for debt reserve payments (FPFC 1996 Bond Refinance).
2. Line Item 1921 — $10 million for debt reserve payments (FPFC 1999 Bond Refinance).
3. Line Item 1922 — $88,110,883 for the FSTED Program, SIS, GM, SPII and other FDOT allocations in FDOT 5-Year Work Program.
4. Line Item 1923 — $10,095,000 for the Seaport Investment Program/Bond debt reserve payments.
5. Line Item 1925 — $74,438,222 for the FDOT Intermodal Development/Grants Program. This may or may not include some seaport projects.

The Senate budget, line item 1922 still includes the following recommended proviso language for the FSTED Program Seaport Security Grant Program – “From the funds in Specific Appropriation 1922, $2,000,000 is provided for the Seaport Security Grant Program, pursuant to section 311.12(6), Florida Statutes. The funding provided shall focus on filling seaport security technology gaps utilizing situational awareness tools and enhanced cyber security technologies.” This language is identical to the proviso language approved by the Florida Legislature last year.