State lawmakers finally put the finishing touches on a drawn-out budget negotiation this year, agreeing to nearly $560 million in funding for projects and sealing deals on environmental and higher education funding.
As part of a June 13 budget deal, they agreed to cut $1.3 billion in taxes. More than $900 million of that will come from eliminating the tax on business rent.
Other cuts are targeted at consumers, including a move to make traditional back-to-school sales tax holiday on clothes under $75 dollars and other school items permanent, lasting the length of August every year. That’s estimated to save consumers at least $167.7 million per year.
The agreement also will permanently eliminate the sales tax for some batteries, fire and smoke detectors, portable generators, tarps, life jackets, bike helmets, sunscreen and insect repellant. But the move will cost the state coffers $127.1 million per year.
The deal resolves the key dispute that held up the budget for more than a month – a standoff between House and Senate leaders over tax cuts – and sets up a vote on the 2025-26 spending plan just after 10 p.m. June 16. Florida’s constitution requires a 72-hour “cooling off” period once the budget is made public before legislators can vote on it.
A price tag for the total budget came in at $115.13 billion, roughly $470 million less than Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposal of $115.6 billion. The current year’s budget is $118.6 billion.
“Choices have to be made, right? And we all come from different corners of this state with different experiences and different situations so that conversation took a little bit longer than expected,” House budget chief Lawrence McClure, R-Dover, told reporters.
“Hopefully next year’s legislature and future legislatures will be the beneficiaries, where otherwise they would have been making equally if not more difficult decisions than we did this year.”
The cuts include eliminating more than 1,000 vacant positions throughout the state government and setting aside $750 million per year into a key reserve fund.
Not every portion of the budget, though, will see cuts. State workers will receive an across-the-board raise of 2%, and teachers and law enforcement will receive targeted raises, as will judges, state attorneys and public defenders.
Lawmakers agree on over half-billion dollars’ worth of special projects
As part of the last-minute deals, lawmakers agreed to $560 million in special projects in what have come to be known as “sprinkle lists,” a nickname from the idea that lawmakers are “sprinkling” extra money across the state.
That includes $136.9 million to boost nursing home reimbursement rates, $23 million in operational funds for the Florida State Guard, $10 million for a cancer research fund supported by First Lady Casey DeSantis and $1.8 million for the Mary Brogan Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program.
Senate budget chief Ed Hooper, R-Clearwater, said with President Donald Trump and other top federal officials talking about phasing out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, it was important to provide funding for the Florida State Guard to help state residents recover from future hurricanes.
“We heard yesterday from our friends in Washington after this hurricane season there may be no more FEMA. We may be on our own some day and that would not be the time to start thinking, ‘Should we plan ahead?’ ” Hooper said. “The State Guard’s an important part of making sure we have the resources.”
Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, has said he wanted to cut expenses, concerned about a projected $7 billion shortfall in two years if current spending trends continued. But he clashed with Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, about how to do it.
Perez’s main priority was cutting the state sales tax from 6% to 5.25%, costing state coffers about $5 billion per year. Albritton initially refused to go along, concerned such a big cut would hamper the ability to fund vital programs for a growing state.
The dispute pushed the budget negotiations past the original May 2 end date for the regular session. Then a “framework” agreed to by Albritton and Perez to cut the sales tax to 5.75% was scuttled by DeSantis, who vowed to veto any tax cut plan that included an overall sales tax reduction. He was concerned such a move would crowd out his push for a property tax cut on the 2026 statewide ballot.
When House and Senate negotiators went back to the drawing board, another framework for a tax cut deal emerged, with $1.3 billion in cuts.
Before the latest agreement, lawmakers knew they were pressed for time to pass a spending plan. The fiscal year ends June 30, and if a budget wasn’t in place by then, parts of state government may have needed to shut down.
“We knew that we had to come here to get where we are today because, come July 1, nobody wanted a government shutdown. Nobody wanted employees to be without a paycheck,” Hooper said.
DeSantis, who has line-item veto authority, must still sign it into law by June 30. Given the fights with the Legislature, he could wield a heavy veto pen when he does.
If you can’t read the documents above, click here and here.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at grohrer@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Lawmakers seal lean budget deal, aim for June 16 final vote
Reporting by Gray Rohrer, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
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