With House and Senate budget leaders continuing to struggle to reach agreement on spending totals and tax breaks, lawmakers will not meet next week.
The 60-day legislative session was scheduled to end Friday, but lawmakers have blown past a budget deadline to make that happen. House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, and Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, also advised their members Thursday that lawmakers won’t be in Tallahassee next week.
“We are putting together a framework for a budget, and I am optimistic we will have more news to share soon,” Albritton said. “For your planning purposes, you do not need to plan on being here next week. I hope that will give everyone a chance to celebrate Mother’s Day weekend with your loved ones.”
With Mother’s Day on May 11, that means the formal budget conference negotiating process won’t happen until at least around the middle of the month.
It remained unclear early Thursday how the House and Senate would agree on coming back to pass a budget and possibly other legislation. A budget must be finished before the July 1 start of the 2025-2026 fiscal year.
The Senate and the House have been swapping proposals on the budget and a linked tax-cut package.
But as of early Thursday afternoon, they had not announced agreement on an initial step known as “allocations,” which are overall dollar amounts for different areas of spending, such as education, health care, law enforcement, agriculture and transportation. Once allocations are set, conference committees can negotiate details of the budget.
The House and Senate passed budget proposals last month with a more than $4 billion gap. The House’s proposal totaled $112.95 billion, while the Senate’s weighed in at $117.36 billion.
The House has proposed a tax package (HB 7033) totaling about $5 billion, with the cuts largely stemming from a plan to permanently reduce the state’s sales-tax rate from 6 percent to 5.25 percent.
The Senate proposed a $1.83 billion tax-cut package (SB 7034) that includes eliminating sales taxes on clothing and shoes that cost $75 or less.
Albritton has raised concerns about making deep, recurring tax cuts because of potential budget shortfalls that might need to be addressed in future years. Perez has said the House concluded that the state should cut taxes to curb spending.
While making an appearance Wednesday at a Fruitland Park school, Gov. Ron DeSantis placed blame for the stalled budget talks on the House. DeSantis, who has feuded with Perez on a series of issues, said there are “glaring distinctions” between the House and Senate.
DeSantis described the Senate as “mature” and “professional,” while saying the House’s approach has been “based upon personal agendas” and “petty.”
