More than one month after ending the regular session without passing a budget, legislative leaders said Thursday they have a deal on top-line spending levels.
The breakthrough means the House and Senate can enter formal negotiations on the final details of the spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1. But they won’t start right away.
Next week the Legislature will have a special session to consider redrawing congressional districts, installing regulations on artificial intelligence and expanding exemptions to vaccine requirements for children attending public K-12 schools.
In separate memos to members, House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, and Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, stated the special session to hammer out the budget will run May 12-29, although the formal proclamation for the session hasn’t been issued.
During the regular session the Senate passed a $115 billion budget and the House passed a $113.6 billion spending plan. Perez, though, insisted on a budget that was less than the current year level of $115.1 billion.
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The agreement reached Thursday involves top-line numbers, known as allocations, which is the amount of money in general revenue that will be spent in each area of the budget. The allocations don’t include money from state trust funds or federal funding.
The total allocations add up to nearly $52 billion, about $2.02 billion more than the current year. Once other state and federal funds are taken into account, however, Perez and Albritton stated the new budget will be less than the current spending plan.
“I am pleased to announce that, for the second consecutive year, our budget will reduce overall government spending while responsibly directing taxpayer dollars toward essential priorities,” Perez wrote in his memo.
The initial breakthrough is just the first step for budget talks between the chambers, which remain at odds on major issues.
When the House and Senate passed their budgets during the regular session, they were $300 million apart on K-12 schools funding and disagreed over whether to include the $4.5 billion for the state’s universal voucher program in the main school funding formula.
The Senate wanted more money for raises for state workers than the House, which also wanted to address a $362.2 million projected shortfall in the fund that pays for state employees’ health insurance.
There are also wide gaps between the chambers on land conservation programs, affordable housing programs and an emergency fund used by Gov. Ron DeSantis for spending related to states of emergency declared by him that aren’t natural disasters, including imprisoning undocumented immigrants and rescuing Floridians from global hotspots like Israel and Haiti.
