Budget conference: Senate moves on House pension padding plan, but without COLA sweetener
Facing troubles recruiting and retaining employees throughout state government, lawmakers are moving to hike state worker salaries by 5% across the board and boost pension payouts.
In Saturday afternoon budget talks on SB 7024, the Senate moved closer to a House plan to increase benefits in the Florida Retirement System (FRS), but top Senate budget negotiator Doug Broxson, a Gulf Breeze Republican, said a plan to restore annual cost of living adjustments was too expensive.
But the Senate did agree to remove the restrictive window to enter the Deferred Retirement Optional Program (DROP), which allows retirement-age workers to continue accruing benefits while still working, and extend the time...
