The Budget
For the second year in row, the Legislature could not complete its work on time. Lawmakers could not produce a new state budget, the only thing they are constitutionally required to do, so they had to return for a special session.
Familiar tensions arose during the session, and it became obviously fairly early on that the budget was going to take extra time. House Speaker Daniel Perez said there was a “fundamental disagreement on what the state budget should look like.” He said the House wants to spend less and the Senate wants to spend more, and he was not going to be very flexible on that. This proved true, as the original plan was to return to Tallahassee in mid-April to finish the budget, but the conference committee process did not start until a month later.
The House and Senate budget proposals totaled $113.6 billion and $115.0 billion, respectively. After a prolonged budget conference, the two chambers compromised on a $114.5 billion spending plan. While being touted as a budget cut, it actually spends $2 billion more in General Revenue (GR) than in the current year.
Budget Highlights
Bottom Line:
General Revenue – $52.296 billion, $2.0 billion more than in the current year.
State Trust Funds – $26.947 billion, $1.2 billion less than the current year.
Federal Funds – $35.218 billion, $1.1 billion less than the current year.
Total Appropriations – $0.357 billion less than the current year.
It should be noted that the practice of appropriating money in general bills and in the “back of the (budget) bill” has made the General Appropriations Act’s published bottom line an inaccurate barometer of total appropriations. While this increases total appropriations, the Governor’s line-item vetoes will reduce the amount. Stay tuned for Florida’s TaxWatch’s Annual Taxpayer’s Guide to Florida’s 2026-27 State Budget, which will be released after the vetoes and will quantify all net appropriations.
Reserves – The new budget maintains very healthy reserves of $14.3 billion. This is comprised of $8.6 billion in unobligated GR and $5.7 billion in the Budget Stabilization Fund (BSF). The new budget adds $118.0 to the BSF and another $750.0 million contingent on the voters passing a proposed constitutional amendment in November that would increase the cap on the BSF balance from 10 percent of the prior year’s GR collection to 25 percent. It should be noted that the Governor veto the $750 million transfer last year.
Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund (EPRF) – The budget adds $250.0 million to the EPRF, bringing its balance to__. This fund was scheduled to terminate last February, but the Legislature re-created the Fund despite objections that the Fund lacked adequate controls and concerns over the amount spent on non-natural disasters, such as immigration enforcement. The Legislature also added some guardrails and oversight for the EPRF.
Member Projects and Budget Turkeys – Despite the call for a leaner budget, legislators requested more hometown projects than ever before. The budget includes nearly 2,000 of those local member projects. The Florida TaxWatch annual Budget Turkey Watch report identified 631 appropriations totaling $829.7 million that qualify as “Budget Turkeys.” These are appropriations that bypass or violate established budget procedures or legislative and public scrutiny. In addition, the report highlighted $441.1 million in projects that, while not meet the Budget Turkey criteria, certainly merit extra scrutiny and close gubernatorial review. These two groups of appropriations are almost entirely member projects.
Debt Reduction – Florida TaxWatch commends the Governor and the Legislature for their commitment to reducing outstanding state debt. Florida has retired $7.3 billion in tax-supported debt since 2019. The new budget transfers $150 million to the Debt Reduction Program.
State Employee Pay Raises – The Senate budget contained a three percent across-the-board state employee pay raise. While the House proposed only targeted increases. The settled on no across-the-board raises but funded four percent increase for state law enforcement officers, firefighters, and park rangers. The minimum salary for correctional officers was increased from $22/hour to $24/hour. Lastly, Assistant State Attorney’s wll receive a $10,000 increase and Assistant Public Defenders will get $3.500.
Public Schools – The budget provides $30.0 billion for the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP). This is $9,338 per student, an increase of $150 (1.6 percent). Base Student Allocation (BSA) funding was increased by $85 per student (2.0 percent, less than inflation). The Legislature provided $1.56 billion for teacher salary increases, which includes $200 million for teachers with at least 10 years of teaching experience. Last year, local property taxes paid 71 percent of the increase in total funding. This year, the state paid for most (56 percent) of the increase. Florida TaxWatch commends the Legislature for rolling back the Required Local Effort Millage rate from 3.092 mills to 3.037 mills and not passing on another property tax increase to overburdened taxpayers.
The Legislature provided $145.5 million for eight new public schools in small school districts. Charter schools received all of the $260.2 million PECO allocation for maintenance, repair, renovation and remodeling. Traditional public schools, universities, and colleges received none of this funding.
Higher Education – Colleges and universities will receive $9.3 billion (including tuition and fees), a 8.5 percent decrease in state funding. The $40.0 million in funding for Florida’s four Preeminent State Research Universities was eliminated. University performance-based funding was unchanged ($350 million). Colleges receive $209.1 million for 30 construction projects and universities were allocated $465.5 million for 31 projects, large increases from last year’s funding (after vetoes). Once again, the Legislature did not pay much attention to the statutorily required ranked project list prepared by the Board of Governors and the Division of Colleges.
Medicaid – Funding of $37.6 billion is provided for Medicaid and Kid Care, including $1.6 billion for Medicaid workload and price level increases. There will be more than four million people enrolled in the Medicaid program. The new Rural Health Transformation Program was appropriated $209.9 million and 14 new positions. Rate increases for Medicaid Providers are allocated $205.9 million.
Elder Care – The Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) gets $38.4 million to create 2,200 new PACE slots. Funding of $3.0 million Is provided to reduce the waitlist for Alzheimer’s respite services, $7.5 million is provided to reduce the waitlists for the Community Care for the Elderly program and the Home Care for the Elderly program.
Behavioral Health – Funding for community mental health and substance abuse recurring funding Is increased, including $5 million for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, $7 million for Central Receiving Facilities to expand crisis services statewide, and nearly $10 million for more community treatment beds. The budget also adds $15 million to the children’s Statewide Inpatient Psychiatric Program and provides a five percent rate increase to providers of substance use treatment services as an alternative to incarceration.
Corrections – The budget further provides $106.4 million for correctional facility infrastructure improvements and expansion projects, including a new prison hospital and additional dorms.
Housing and Economic Development – Florida’s affordable housing programs (SHIP and SAIL) are fully funded at $236.5 million and the Hometown Heroes Housing Program gets $50 million. The Florida Job Growth Fund will receive $40 million, down from $50 million last year and $75 million the year before. Visit Florida funding is maintained at $80 million to promote our state’s tourism industry and $24.5 million goes to Space Florida for aerospace industry development and infrastructure funding.
Agriculture and the Environment – Funding is provided for:
- Everglades Restoration – $638.6 million
- C-51 Reservoir Project – The distribution of documentary stamp tax revenues was changed to allocate $60 million annually to this public-private partnership for a major regional alternative water supply project in Southeast Florida.
- Water Quality Improvement – $584.4 million. Florida TaxWatch commends the Legislature for their commitment to funding water quality but reiterates our recommendation to use the statutory Water Quality Improvement Grant Program to better choose projects based on established criteria and statewide vision. For the second year in a row, the Legislature used the implementing bill to bypass this process and use all $380 million to fund local member projects.
- Flood and Sea-Level Rise and Planning Grant Programs– $170.0 million
- Conservation Land Acquisition and Protection – $334.0 million.
- Petroleum Tank Cleanup – $167.0 million
- Beach Restoration – $64.1 million, an $11.6 million increase
- Springs Restoration – $50.0 million
- Drinking Water and Wastewater Revolving Loan Programs – $579.3 million
- Citrus Protection and Research – The budget includes $196 million for Florida’s citrus industry, a priority of Senate President Ben Albritton. His Make Citrus Great Again initiative has been allocated $320 million in two years for research, field trials, infrastructure, and tree acquisition.
- Farmers Feeding Florida – $38 million to purchase, transport, and distribute Florida-grown food products to food-insecure Florida residents.
- Conservation Lands Acquisition and Easements – $425 million for the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program and $100 million for Florida Forever.
Transportation – $11.6 billion is provided for the Transportation Work Program. The distribution of documentary stamp tax revenues was change to redirect $95.2 million from General Revenue to the State Transportation Trust Fund for the Small County Outreach Program ($20.0 million), the Small County Road Assistance Program ($15.2 million), and the Florida Rail Enterprise ($60.0 million).
