Florida GOP lawmakers split, end session abruptly with no budget

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - Deep divisions over healthcare funding in Florida's Republican-dominated statehouse brought a dramatic end to the legislative session on Tuesday, with the state senate vowing to keep working even as the other chamber's members were leaving town with no budget passed.

With the 60-day legislative session scheduled to conclude on Friday, the state House of Representatives called it quits three days early.

State Senator Tom Lee, a Republican, compared the act to "being jilted at the altar."

Dozens of bills instantly became political casualties of the session’s demise, including Republican Governor Rick Scott's plan to pass $690 million in tax cuts.

The plug also got pulled on efforts to permit medical marijuana and to repeal an 1868 law prohibiting unmarried men and women from cohabitation.

Lawmakers already were widely expected to reconvene in May or June to resolve an impasse over the state's roughly $80 billion budget.

Moderate Senate Republicans want to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, accepting more than $50 billion in federal funding to cover some 800,000 Floridians.

The more conservative state House remains staunchly opposed.

Republican Ritch Workman, the House Rules Committee chairman, saw no point in remaining at the Capitol.

“This is the first time that I’ve seen an immovable object on top of the budget, and no negotiation can take place until somehow we move that object,” he said.

Democrats in the Florida House, a small minority often irrelevant in passing legislation, called for negotiations to end to the stalemate.

   “Like a child in a sandbox, if somebody took their toy away,” said House Minority Leader Mark Pafford.

(Editing by Letitia Stein; Editing by David Gregorio)