After years of belt-tightening, Florida could have a major budget surplus for the 2014-15 fiscal year. On Thursday the Legislative Budget Commission, a joint panel of House and Senate members, heard projections of as much as $845 million.

Already there's a public debate about how much to save, how much to invest and how much to return to the taxpayers. Governor Rick Scott is calling for a package of $500 million in tax and fee cuts. And Senate budget chief Joe Negron has filed a bill that would roll back vehicle-registration fees that were increased in 2009 to help close a state budget shortfall.

"Government has a bad habit of raising fees during bad times, but then when times get better, the fees never come off the books", Negron complained. "So I've filed a bill to return $230 million a year for those vehicle tag registrations."

Negron pursued a similar rollback during the 2013 session. But the bill died, partly because it would have been funded by eliminating a tax break that benefits the politically influential insurance industry. The new bill, which will be considered during the 2014 session, doesn't include the insurance-tax issue.

Negron said earlier this week he has spoken with Scott about including the vehicle-registration fee reductions in the package of cuts that the governor will propose.