Legislature Adjourns but Must Return in April to Pass a Budget
For the second year in row, the Legislature could not complete its work on time. On Day 60–the last scheduled day of the 2026 Florida Legislative Session–the Legislature adjourned, but they are not finished. Lawmakers could not produce a new state budget, the only thing they are constitutionally required to do, so they will be coming back. Legislators will return to Tallahassee in mid-April, after the Easter and Passover holidays. The Governor has already called for a special session on Congressional redistricting starting April 20.
The two chambers have still not agreed on budget allocations—the total amount of funding dedicated to each policy area.
“Fundamental Disagreement” on Budget Blocks Progress
The session is in its final scheduled week and there is still no significant progress on the budget. House Speaker Daniel Perez says there is a “fundamental disagreement on what the state budget should look like”. He summed it up by saying the House wants to spend less and the Senate wants to spend more, and he is not going to be very flexible on that. The rift extends to legislation as well, and as a result, most of the priority bills of the Senate, House, and the Governor appear dead, or at least in serious trouble. It is obvious the Legislature is not even close to a solution and overtime is looming.
No word yet on when budget conference negotiations will begin.
House and Senate Pass Their Budget Proposals, Conference Negotiations Next Step (February 20)
The House and Senate also passed their new state budget proposals this week, totaling $113.6 billion and $115.0 billion, respectively. This House offer is a slight reduction of 1.1% from current spending, the Senate has a slight increase. However, both chambers propose an increase in General Revenue spending. The Senate Appropriations Committee took up its budget earlier this week, adopting 181 amendments, almost all of them transferring funding to add another member project. This brings the total number of member projects in both budgets is approximately 2,900.
In addition to deciding who gets to bring what home to their district, there are a number of big ticket budget issues to be negotiated, including funding for public education, Everglades restoration and water quality, state employee pay raises, the Florida State Guard, the Governor’s Job Growth Grant Fund, and the transfer of USF Manatee-Sarasota Campus to New College.
The odds for a drama-free, timely resolution to the budget process are not great, but let’s be optimistic.
After Delay, House & Senate Finally Release Budget Proposals (February 14)
As Week 5 came to close, it seemed the first look at a proposed state budget would have to wait another week. After two House subcommittees had no budget discussions, the Senate budget chair issued a memo saying they would not be releasing the budget before next week, but “our goal remains to roll out our budget in concert with our House partners.” The House scuttled that plan when it released its budget after 5:00 on Thursday (no legislative activity on Friday). The Senate responded later Thursday night, saying they would release their budget on Friday.
The budget process so far has been unusual, to say the least. Both chambers’ proposed General Appropriations Acts have been released without any budget committee or subcommittee discussion. The House has not even released its subcommittee spreadsheets yet. These are not signs of a good cooperative working relationship and its seems friction is increasing, as it did last year.
The House budget totals $113.6 billion, $1.4 billion less than the Senate and $1.2 billion (1.1%) less than current spending. It is also $3.8 billion (3.2%) less than the Governor’s recommendation. The Senate’s $115.0 budget is a very slight increase over current spending. Surprisingly, both chambers propose to increase General Revenue spending from the current level. The Senate proposes a 4.0% GR increase.
The House proposes to increase per-student public school funding by 2.7%, paid for mostly with state funds, thanks to a reduced school property tax millage rate. The Senate’s per student increase is only 1.6%, and it keeps the same millage rate.
New GR Forecast Adds $572.5 Million for Next Budget – The General Revenue (GR) Estimating Conference met on January 23 to adopt the new GR forecast. This is the one that tells lawmakers how much is available for the new state budget. For a legislature that has been hearing warnings from state economists about looming budget shortfalls, the news is good, but certainly not game changing.
Actual GR collections exceeded the previous estimate made in August 2025 by $486.9 million during the first five months of the current fiscal year (2025-26). Despite this, the Conference only added $502.5 million to the revenue estimate for the current year and $70.0 million to the FY2026-27 estimate. This gives the 2026 Legislature $572.5 million more to spend than previously anticipated. While $572.5 million is a lot of money, it is only one percent of total GR collections for the upcoming budget year.
Most of the individual GR sources had their estimates increased, led by the sales tax, which added more than $800 million over the two years. Only two sources had decreased estimates, but one source was a big one. The increase in the sales tax was largely offset by an $800 million reduction in the corporate income tax estimate. Most of the other smaller GR sources had their estimates increased, led by Indian gaming revenue and earnings on investments.
The 2026 Legislature will have $51.7 billion in recurring revenue available for the new budget–$4.4 billion (19.4 percent) more than what is being spent in the current year. However, this is only $1.5 billion more than the state’s economists say the Legislature will need to fund the recurring base budget and increased costs. And it is not enough to stave off potential budget shortfalls in FY2027-28 and FY 2028-29, without significant budget reductions by the 2026 Legislature.
Governor’s Budget Recommendations – In December, Governor DeSantis released his FY2026-27 budget recommendations. His budget totals $117.36 billion, $2.54 billion (2.2 percent) more than the current budget. It includes $53.22 billion in General Revenue, an increase of $2.88 billion (5.7 percent).
The Governor’s highlights include $1.56 billion for teacher pay raises, part of a $30.6 billion public school budget, that includes a 3.1 percent increase in per-student funding.
State employees would receive a 2 percent across-the-board pay raise and certain employees, such as law enforcement officers, park rangers, judges, attorneys, and information technology professionals, would receive a 5 percent bump. The budget also sets aside $25 million for law enforcement recruitment bonuses.
The Department of Transportation Work Program would be funded at $14.3 billion, with a focus on accelerating construction projects, such as projects in Central Florida to relieve I-4 congestion.
Although the Governor is pushing for significant local property tax relief, his budget recommendations contain only one state tax relief measure—a 2nd Amendment Sales Tax Holiday. During the nearly four-month holiday, consumers would save an estimated $34.9 million on sales tax exempt firearms, crossbows, and camping and fishing supplies.
Florida TaxWatch commends the Governor for his continuing commitment to reducing state debt. The budget includes $250 million for accelerated debt paydown, with the goal of retiring 50 percent of tax-supported debt by FY2026-27.
For more information on the Governor’s recommended budget, click here.
Budget Shortfalls Ahead? – Florida’s Long-Range Fiscal Outlook was released in September, warning legislators that while there was enough money to fund a “business as usual budget” for the upcoming fiscal year, doing so would result in budget shortfalls of $1.5 billion in FY2027-28, ballooning to $6.6 billion the following year. It was recommended that the Legislature begin cutting spending this session or it will be even harder to balance the budget during the next two years.
Florida TaxWatch urges the Legislature to not only get member projects under control, but to also look deep into the base budget and find unnecessary recurring spending that can be cut from the budget.
