Gov. Ron DeSantis said there’s no need for a special summit to agree on a budget, which has kept the Legislature from ending its session over a week after it was supposed to.
Florida already knows what works, representatives just need to turn to past budgets for an example, he said at a press conference in Tampa on Monday.
"You don't need a summit to just keep doing what we've been doing,” he said, adding it is not his job to host a special meeting.
“We're not going to do a dog-and-pony show,” he said. “It's not the way this works. The way it works is people should do their jobs.”
His role, he said, is to sign or veto the budget or veto line items.
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DeSantis also touted how Florida has paid off debt, built up a rainy-day fund and supported law enforcement in the past.
"The voters want us to keep doing what we've done to build off the success, meet challenges that are before us and to put their interests first,” he said.
He said House leaders are not doing this and are instead putting personal motives first.
"You've got some of these folks in House leadership — they have a personal agenda,” DeSantis said. “They have vendettas or [are] petty."
He said the House is claiming the Senate has a spending problem while representatives vote to undo the Senate’s cost-saving measures.
In April, the House backed a budget proposal that was over $4 billion less than what the Senate had approved. The 2025-26 budget must be approved by July 1 — the start of the next fiscal year.
One of the biggest holdups is a debate over cutting taxes. The House wants to cut the sales tax rate from 6% to 5.25%, but the Senate did not sign off on the idea.
DeSantis strongly opposes the plan and wants a one-time, $1,000 property tax rebate for homeowners, along with the possibility of putting a measure to eliminate property taxes on the 2026 ballot.
In response to DeSantis, Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, said the House and Senate are "making progress" on allocations, which will dictate how much money goes to different budget areas. The details will be negotiated by conference committees.
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"As I told the senators on Friday, I am committed to continuing to work toward a final budget and tax relief package the House, Senate and governor can support," he said.
After discussing how Florida is serving as an example of immigration enforcement, DeSantis said state law enforcement officers deserve a raise and funding for body armor.
The House’s budget proposal failed to follow this recommendation, DeSantis said while speaking at the Florida Highway Patrol's Tampa office.
He pointed to over 1,000 arrests of people in the United States illegally during just one week in late April. He also boasted about local law enforcement arresting 30 people in the country illegally in just over an hour in Tampa.
DeSantis said this model, called "Operation Tidal Wave," was used to shape the federal blueprint for enforcement.
And, as to President Donald Trump’s goal of 20,000 more officers enforcing immigration nationwide, 10% are already in Florida, DeSantis said. Over 100 Florida Highway Patrol officers were sworn into the enforcement program in May.
The governor said this is a result of statewide mandates that all local law enforcement agencies comply with a program to train officers to “perform immigration enforcement duties.” Agencies in all 67 counties in Florida have complied.
DeSantis also responded to a federal judge’s freeze on enforcing these programs last week.
“This raises the issue of these judges that have just gotten out of control in this country,” he said. “They think that they can set policies for the entire country.”
He also said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has not only collected data and intelligence, but also is creating a transparent dashboard to track immigration enforcement efforts.
Information from The News Service of Florida was used in this report.
