These are the key budget details still unresolved in the Florida Legislature

16 hrs ago
©2025 The News Service of Florida

Legislative leaders have not reached an agreement on key initial budget details, as lawmakers prepare to return to the Capitol to hammer out a spending plan for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, which will begin July 1. The House and Senate did not pass a budget before Friday’s scheduled end of the annual legislative session, requiring an extension. Before heading home Friday, House and Senate leaders said they had reached a consensus on a “framework” for a budget plan that would include $2.8 billion in tax cuts, with lawmakers expected to return to the Capitol during the week of May 12 to negotiate details. But Senate Appropriations Chairman Ed Hooper, a Trinity Republican who was scheduled to take a mid-May cruise, told The News Service of Florida on Wednesday that leaders have not agreed on what are known as “allocations,” which are overall amounts of money that would be spent in different areas of the budget. “Cruise rescheduled until late June. No allocations agreed to yet,” Hooper said. After allocations are reached, conference committees can negotiate myriad spending issues. The inability to reach a budget deal during the scheduled 60-day session hinged, at least in part, on disagreements between House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, and Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, about tax-cut proposals. Also, Perez, who favors a large sales-tax cut, and Gov. Ron DeSantis, who wants to cut property taxes, have clashed. DeSantis said Wednesday that a House plan to reduce the state sales tax rate is something “nobody is asking for” and would “effectively kill any opportunity to do property-tax reform.” He also has repeatedly said cutting sales taxes would benefit visitors to Florida, while property-tax reductions would help homeowners. Perez quickly punched back. “I give the governor credit for starting this debate, but he’s had months to produce an actual plan to lower property tax rates, and we’re still waiting. An imaginary plan can’t cut real taxes,” Perez said in a statement.