Florida
Lawmakers seal lean budget deal, aim for June 16 final vote
‘Nobody wanted a government shutdown. Nobody wanted employees to be without a paycheck,’ one top lawmaker said.
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State lawmakers finally put the finishing touches on a drawn-out budget negotiation this year, agreeing to nearly $560 million in funding for projects and sealing deals on environmental and higher education funding.
The move sets up a vote on the 2025-26 budget – delayed for more than a month over a standoff between House and Senate leaders over tax cuts – for June 16. Florida’s constitution requires a 72-hour “cooling off” period once the budget is made public before legislators can vote on it.
A price tag for the total budget wasn’t available the afternoon of June 13, but House budget chief Lawrence McClure, R-Dover, said it would be less than Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposal of $115.6 billion. The current year’s budget is $118.6 billion.
“Choices have to be made, right? And we all come from different corners of this state with different experiences and different situations so that conversation took a little bit longer than expected,” McClure told reporters.
“Hopefully next year’s legislature and future legislatures will be the beneficiaries, where otherwise they would have been making equally if not more difficult decisions than we did this year,” he added.
The cuts include eliminating more than 1,000 vacant positions throughout the state government and setting aside $750 million per year into a key reserve fund.
Not every portion of the budget, though, will see cuts. State workers will receive an across-the-board raise of 2%, and teachers and law enforcement will receive targeted raises, as will judges, state attorneys and public defenders.
Lawmakers agree on over half-billion dollars’ worth of special projects
As part of the last-minute deals, lawmakers agreed to $560 million in special projects in what have come to be known as “sprinkle lists,” a nickname from the idea that lawmakers are “sprinkling” extra money across the state.
That includes $136.9 million to boost nursing home reimbursement rates, $23 million in operational funds for the Florida State Guard, $10 million for a cancer research fund supported by First Lady Casey DeSantis and $1.8 million for the Mary Brogan Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program.
Senate budget chief Ed Hooper, R-Clearwater, said with President Donald Trump and other top federal officials talking about phasing out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, it was important to provide funding for the Florida State Guard to help state residents recover from future hurricanes.
“We heard yesterday from our friends in Washington after this hurricane season there may be no more FEMA. We may be on our own some day and that would not be the time to start thinking, ‘Should we plan ahead?’ ” Hooper said. “The State Guard’s an important part of making sure we have the resources.”
Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, has said he wanted to cut expenses, concerned about a projected $7 billion shortfall in two years if current spending trends continued. But he clashed with Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, about how to do it.
Perez’s main priority was cutting the state sales tax from 6% to 5.25%, costing state coffers about $5 billion per year. Albritton initially refused to go along, concerned such a big cut would hamper the ability to fund vital programs for a growing state.
The dispute pushed the budget negotiations past the original May 2 end date for the regular session. Then a “framework” agreed to by Albritton and Perez to cut the sales tax to 5.75% was scuttled by DeSantis, who vowed to veto any tax cut plan that included an overall sales tax reduction. He was concerned such a move would crowd out his push for a property tax cut on the 2026 statewide ballot.
When House and Senate negotiators went back to the drawing board, another framework for a tax cut deal emerged, with $1.6 billion in cuts. Those details still need to be worked out, but Hooper and McClure said they’d meet again to hash out a deal on the tax bill.
Before the latest agreement, lawmakers knew they were pressed for time to pass a spending plan. The fiscal year ends June 30, and if a budget isn’t in place by then, parts of state government may need to shut down.
“We knew that we had to come here to get where we are today because, come July 1, nobody wanted a government shutdown. Nobody wanted employees to be without a paycheck,” Hooper said.
Lawmakers are poised to vote on the budget the evening of June 16. DeSantis, who has line-item veto authority, must still sign it into law by June 30. Given the fights with the Legislature, he could wield a heavy veto pen when he does.
This is a developing news story and will be updated. Check back later for more.
Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at grohrer@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer.
Florida
Florida woman accused of gunning down two ex-husbands on same day
Authorities in Florida are accusing a 51-year-old woman of shooting and killing two ex-husbands on the same day this week.
Susan Erica Avalon was arrested on Thursday on charges of second degree homicide in Manatee County, where her first ex-husband lived, according to Sheriff Rick Wells.
Police in Tampa, where Avalon’s second ex-husband lived, said detectives are working with the State Attorney’s Office to determine “what charges, if any, are applicable in the case.”
It all started on Wednesday afternoon when the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office received a call to respond to a shooting in the Heritage Harbor neighborhood, according to Wells. When deputies arrived, they saw a 54-year-old man with two gunshot wounds.
He was shot in the abdomen, Wells said in a press conference Thursday. “The victim at the time is still alert and is speaking to us.”
When deputies asked him who could have done this, the man responded, “possibly my ex-wife,” Wells said.
The man’s 15-year-old daughter was at the home and heard the shots, according to Wells. When she looked out the window, the teen spotted someone wearing a gray sweatshirt and a mask getting into a silver Honda Odyssey and driving off.”
“I want you to understand how traumatized she is,” Wells said of the 15-year-old, who is also Avalon’s daughter.
The 54-year-old man was taken to a local hospital, where he died of his injuries Wednesday night, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office. Before dying, the man told authorities he was shot upon answering the door to his home.
Authorities believe Avalon showed up at the victim’s home posing as a food delivery driver, Wells said.
Court records from the Manatee County Clerk’s Office show Avalon and the 54-year-old man had been divorced for nearly a decade and had long been dealing with issues of child custody as well as child support disputes.
On Wednesday, investigators later located Avalon in her home in Citrus County, where they saw her wiping the silver Honda Odyssey vehicle with cleaning rags and bleach, Wells said.
When investigators told her they are there to speak to her about her ex-husband, she responded, “which one?” Wells said.
Investigators then began digging into Avalon’s second ex-husband, who lived in Tampa. The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office requested the help of the Tampa Police Department to check on the man and found he had been shot and killed in his home.
In a news release Thursday, the Tampa police said they believe the incident is related to “an ongoing homicide investigation being conducted by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.”
“Investigators are working to determine a motive, but it’s believed the shooter and victim are known to one another,” the news release reads.
Authorities believe Avalon first went to Tampa to kill her second ex-husband before heading to Manatee County and shooting her first ex-husband, the 54-year-old man, Wells said.
Avalon was arrested on Thursday by sheriff’s deputies in Citrus County, where she lives, on an out-of-county warrant, jail records show.
NBC News could not find an attorney listed for Avalon as of Saturday.
Wells said his office’s ongoing investigation is focused on finding the murder weapon and searching Avalon’s vehicle for evidence.
“That’s our goal right now,” he said.
Florida
Florida divorcee, 48, accused of gunning down both of her ex-husbands in same-day fatal shootings
A crazed Florida divorcee was thrown behind bars after allegedly gunning down both of her ex-husbands in separate broad-daylight shootings on the same day, police said.
Susan Avalon, 48, was cuffed Wednesday and slapped with murder charges after blasting one ex-hubby with bullets in Tampa, then traveling more than 50 miles to Manatee County to fatally shoot the other later that day around 3 p.m., according to Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells.
Investigators said Avalon was embroiled in bitter custody battles with her former spouses, which they believe may have sparked the cold-blooded killings.
“It doesn’t get anymore brazen than this,” Wells told reporters at a press conference Thursday.
“We believe this was premeditated. She knew what she was doing, it was planned and she came here to kill her ex-husband.”
Police said the alleged murderess targeted her first husband — a 54-year-old man she divorced roughly 11 years ago — at his Manatee County home around 2:55 p.m., luring him to open his front door with stolen food from a Panera Bread before shooting him twice.
The unidentified man was rushed to a nearby hospital, but succumbed to his injuries later that day.
Surveillance footage captured Avalon walking into the nearby bread eatery and swiping food from the delivery pickup shelf without paying before heading to her ex-husband’s home, authorities said.
Her live-in boyfriend allegedly told police she had recently tracked down her ex-hubby’s address.
The ex’s reportedly had ongoing custody disputes and about $4,000 in unpaid child support, with Avalon facing a looming deadline to pay $200 or lose her driver’s license.
Investigators tracked her silver Honda Odyssey back to her Citrus County home after the shooting and found her scrubbing the minivan with bleach and rags. But when asked by police about her ex-husband, she chillingly replied, “Which one?”
“We only know of one,” Wells said.
“We start to dig into this second ex-husband that we know nothing about, and we find she was married again after the marriage to our victim, and that this ex-husband lives in Tampa.”
Wells said investigators alerted Tampa authorities, who conducted a welfare check at the second husband’s Frierson Avenue home and found him dead inside with multiple gunshot wounds. The back door was also damaged, suggesting forced entry, he added.
Officials have not disclosed the second victim’s name or age, but believe Avalon allegedly killed him first.
The alleged killer, who was previously arrested on child abuse charges in Virginia in 2004, was charged with second-degree homicide in Manatee County. Wells said he is working with prosecutors to have that charge upgraded to first-degree murder and the death penalty.
Avalon, who reportedly has five children between both slain ex-husband’s, also faced two other child abuse cases in Tampa and Pasco County that were later dropped.
She has not yet been charged in the Tampa shooting as police continue their investigation.
Avalon is currently being held at Citrus County Detention Facility in Lecanto.
Florida
Pope names pro-immigrant pastor bishop of Florida diocese where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago is located
Pope Leo XIV on Friday named the Rev. Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez, currently pastor of a predominantly Hispanic church in the Queens borough of New York City, as bishop of Palm Beach, Florida.
The diocese is home to the Mar-a-Lago estate of President Donald Trump, whose get-tough immigration policies have drawn objections from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Rodriguez has been a staunch advocate for migrants, which make up most of his 17,000 congregants at the Our Lady of Sorrows church — the largest parish in the Diocese of Brooklyn, which also oversees churches in Queens.
“I never, never, never expected anything even close to this,” Rodriguez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday from Palm Beach, where he was visiting a homeless shelter.
“I’m even a little bit scared. But I trust in God’s assistance,” he said. “One thing I can tell you is that this diocese is a diocese of hard-working priests and hard-working people, and I’m here to help.”
The Diocese of Palm Beach comprises about 260,000 Catholics and 54 parishes and missions. On its website, the diocese said that Rodriguez will be ordained and installed at a future date during a Mass at the Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola.
A Dominican native
Rodriguez was born in the Dominican Republic and ordained to the priesthood in 2004, in the capital, Santo Domingo. He led the Our Lady of Sorrows parish in the mostly Latino Corona neighborhood of Queens when more than 100 of its parishioners died from COVID-19.
Earlier this year, Rodriguez joined numerous faith leaders across the U.S. expressing their concern about how the immigration crackdown launched by Trump’s administration had sown fear within their migrant-friendly congregations.
In his new assignment, he will lead the diocese where Mar-a-Lago — Trump’s vast south Florida estate — is located. Trump has called the resort the “Center of the Universe.”
“The president is doing really good things, not only for the United States, but for the world. But when it comes to the migrant, the immigration policy, we want to help,” Rodriguez said. “We want to assist the president as a church because we believe that we can do better … than the way we’re doing this right now.”
Some church leaders have condemned Trump’s immigration crackdown, saying it targets parishioners without a criminal record who are now too scared to leave home to attend Mass, buy food or seek medical care.
At many immigrant parishes, U.S.-born children have parents in the country illegally. Some of these parents have signed caregiver affidavits, which designate a legal guardian, in hopes their children stay out of foster care in case they are detained.
“When it comes to enforcing immigration laws, we shouldn’t be enforcing them by focusing on deporting 5-year-olds, 12-year-olds, 9-year-old kids, people that have never committed any crime. So, we’re here to help. We’re willing to help, and God willing, we will,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said he’s in line with the Catholic Church, which staunchly defends the rights of migrants, even as it acknowledges the rights of nations to control their borders.
“The Church’s position about this important and urgent matter has been made crystal clear by the bishops of the United States,” he said.
Immigration a challenging issue for Catholic bishops
The Vatican announced Rodríguez’s appointment the day after it shared that Pope Leo had accepted the resignation of conservative Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan who led the New York archdiocese and also had ties to Trump, including praying at his inauguration earlier this year and being appointed to his Religious Liberty Commission.
On some issues, such as greater inclusion for LGBTQ+ people, U.S. bishops are divided. But on immigration, even conservative Catholic leaders stand on the side of migrants.
During their general assembly earlier this year, U.S. bishops issued a rare “special message” criticizing the Trump administration’s mass deportation of migrants and their “vilification” in the current migration debate. It also lamented the fear and anxiety immigration raids have sown in communities, and the denial of pastoral care to migrants in detention centers.
U.S. Catholic bishops shuttered their longstanding refugee resettlement program after the Trump administration halted federal funding for resettlement aid.
Rodriguez said the church will always be ready to defend the dignity of poor people and migrants, who over generations, “have contributed to the growth of the United States.”
“Migrants are not to be demonized … Good migrant people that are here to work hard for their families — they share many of our core values,” he said. “They’re to be not to be rejected and treated harshly but instead, they’re to be treated respectfully and with dignity. So, that’s the idea, and Pope Leo is backing us up in this.”
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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