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Florida may soon have its first $100 billion budget, a nearly $8 billion increase over the current year.

An open economy and billions from the Federal Government have made the increase possible, but there is almost a problem of having too much cash.

Florida’s Capitol is awash in money.

More than $20 billion coming from the Federal Government.

The cash has eliminated the need for the major across the board cuts once contemplated.

“We still have a tremendous amount of issues we need to pay for, but at the end of the day, the federal money is very helpful,” said House Appropriations Chair Jay Trumbull.

But it is almost a problem of having more money than can be spent.

The House Education budget has $2.8 billion in federal money to help remediate students who fell behind during the pandemic.

“Schools districts have no idea how they are going to spend the $2.8 billion that we got in December. That speaks to the insanity of what Democrats did in Washington,” said House Education Appropriations Chair Randy Fine.

On top of $2.8 billion that arrived in December, Florida is getting another $7 billion to help schools reopen.

But as Fine points out, Florida schools have been open since fall.

“And by the way, the fact that our schools are open proves that all of these blue states abused their children by not being open that whole time,” said Fine.

Senator Doug Broxson is in charge of education funding in the Senate.

“A boatload of money dumped on us,” said Broxson. “And spending money recklessly is not what we should be looking at.”

The House wants to use $3.5 billion of the Federal money to refurbish state buildings, universities and local schools, but the spending plan is still in flux.

Among the things still to be worked out are $1,000 teacher and principle bonuses the Governor wants.

Lawmakers must agree on the spending plan by the end of Tuesday if they want to go home on time by the end of next week.