Florida lawmakers boost money for concealed weapons background checks
News Service of Florida
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Lawmakers shifted $4.34 million on Thursday to cover a projected deficit caused by an uptick in people applying for concealed-weapons licenses.
Without comment, the Joint Legislative Budget Commission, made up of House and Senate members, approved the funding request from the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Division of Licensing, which oversees permitting for concealed weapons.
“The Division of Licensing has experienced the largest call volume of concealed weapons license applications in the program history, with over 203,000 background checks billed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in the first six months of the current fiscal year,” said Thomas Poucher, the department’s director of the Office of Policy and Budget. “This translates to an annual projected total of over 400,000 background checks to be processed throug
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Sandra Averhart talks to Florida House Dist. 3 Rep. Jayer Williamson of Pace about the upcoming legislative session.
District 3 Rep. Jayer Williamson speaks from the floor of the Florida House.
Credit Courtesy Florida House of Representatives
Florida’s 2021 Legislative Session gets underway in a couple of weeks. In the run up to the start of the session on March 2, lawmakers have been in Tallahassee attending committee meetings. WUWF recently checked in with District 3 Representative Jayer Williamson of Pace to talk about the tough work ahead.
“There’re a lot of impacts we’ve had from coronavirus, where revenues are down,” said Williamson, projecting a budget shortfall of about $2.8 billion in this budget year, and possibly a shortfall of up to $1.8 billion next fiscal year.