The Senate Committee on Appropriations on Oct. 11 advanced SB 1906, a bill that would create a debt-reduction program requiring an automatic annual transfer of $250,000,000 from the General Revenue Fund to retire outstanding state bond issues before maturity.

Senator Broder, sponsor of SB 1906, told the committee the bill “adds a ninth element” to the Division of Bond Finance’s required annual debt report and that the program would work “by transferring $250,000,000 a year from the General Revenue Fund each fiscal year to accelerate the retirement of our bonds prior to maturity.”

The bill’s sponsor and other supporters argued the automatic transfer would accelerate debt retirement without the committee-by-committee budgeting that currently occurs in the General Appropriations Act. Senator Bridal said the state’s debt ratio has fallen in recent years and that the change would make early retirement of bonds automatic: “We have a limit of 7%, but we’ve been paying it down so well ... we are down to 2.62%,” Bridal said, citing the debt-ratio calculation used by bond managers.

Committee members asked how the mandated transfers would compare with other uses of one-time or recurring revenue. Senator Polsky asked whether funds earmarked to retire debt might instead earn a higher return if invested elsewhere; Broder and Bridal pointed committee members to the State Board of Administration (SBA) and the Division of Bond Finance for broader investment and financing strategy questions. The bill text exempts the Department of Transportation and the Florida Turnpike Enterprise from the program, a point Bridal said was intentional because those entities have self-supporting, toll-based revenue structures and some public–private partnership deals that could lose money if retired early.

Committee debate included support from Senator Boyd, who called the measure “another step to showing we’re careful stewards of taxpayers’ money.” After debate and closing remarks, the committee reported SB 1906 favorably by roll call.

The bill does not change existing authority for how the SBA or the Division of Bond Finance manages investments or how the Legislature includes debt payments in the General Appropriations Act; rather, it directs an annual transfer into a new statutory debt-reduction program and specifies exemptions for certain self-supporting debt and transportation obligations. The committee record and sponsors directed members to the Division of Bond Finance’s state debt report for the underlying financing details referenced during the hearing.

SB 1906 now moves from committee for further action according to the Senate’s scheduling rules.