As of December, DeSantis’ budget recommendations totaled $114.4 billion. With the Legislature’s newly proposed budget, lawmakers are asking for $3 billion more in spending.
Once signed by DeSantis, the final budget for 2024-2025 will take effect July 1.
As for how technology fared during this year’s legislative session, budget documents highlight the following tech funding for the Department of Education, the Agency for Health Care Administration, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities and the Florida Department of Children and Families:
EDUCATION
- $45 million is earmarked for the Florida Semiconductor Institute at the University of Florida
- $19 million is allocated for the Center of Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture at the University of Florida
- $11.6 million is set aside for educational media and technology services
- $4 million in recurring funds from the state’s general revenue fund will go to the education department’s career planning and work-based learning coordination system
- $3.2 million will be used for aerospace cybersecurity engineering development at Florida Tech, a.k.a. the Florida Institute of Technology
- $1.5 million is earmarked for the Florida Rural Digital Literacy Program
HEALTH CARE ADMINISTRATION
- $101 million is earmarked for the agency’s Children’s Medical Services Network
- $77.7 million from the Medical Care Trust Fund and $14.4 million from the general revenue fund will go toward the agency’s Florida Health Care Connections (FX) project
- $17.8 million will go toward FX enterprise project services and hardware and software renewals
- $14.4 million will go toward FX enterprise data warehouse and data governance
- $13.7 million will go toward FX integration services and an integration platform
AGENCY FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
- $1.9 million from the state’s operations and maintenance trust fund and $1.9 million from the general revenue fund have been set aside for the agency to implement and enhance its iConnect system
- $1.7 million from the state’s operations and maintenance trust fund and $814,750 from the general revenue fund have been set aside to replace the Agency for Persons with Disabilities’ incident management system
CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
- $124 million has been earmarked for information technology
- $29.3 million from the federal grants trust fund will be used for the agency’s Florida Online Recipients Integrated Data Access Technology System
- $25 million from the federal grants trust fund and $11.6 million from the general revenue fund will be used for the agency’s Automated Community Connection to Economic Self-Sufficiency Florida System
- $15.8 million from the general revenue fund, $10.5 million from the federal grants trust fund and $303,259 will go toward the agency Florida Safe Families Network
- $8.9 million from the general revenue fund and $8.6 million from the federal grants trust fund will go toward the agency’s Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System modernization project
Industry Insider — Florida will examine another batch of agencies’ tech funding next week. In the meantime, the Legislature’s budget can be found online.
