TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – There’s a fight over the upcoming budget in Florida and the current budget this year.
Gov. Ron Desantis has released a video statement on social media critical of the GOP-led Florida home.
He said how they “were left our priorities” after winning votes to override line items’ veto for this current budget, which ends June 30th.
“The Republicans in Florida home voted to cancel the millions of dollars with the cost savings I enacted when I signed this fiscal year’s budget in June 2024,” Desantis said.
Desantis used his line item veto to cut millions of people from his state budget this fiscal year.
Fentris Driskel, a house minority leader outside of Hillsboro County, supports the ultramajority who revisits its budget.
“In fact, some of the much-needed infrastructure in Tampa Bay could help avoid some of the dramatic floods we saw after suffering those hurricanes last fall,” Driskel said.
This week, Congress voted to cancel the $5 million cuts allocated over $1 million for the Water and Sewer Projects along the state’s East Coast, the Department of Corrections’ scheduling system, and more than $100,000 for the Crisis Fund for Senior Veterans in Florida.
Driskell said this is an effort to show that even the vast majority of GOPs have checks and balance.
“It can make the governor very clearly know where the council is standing. We’ve worked very hard to get the budget that goes through the committee process. There are people who submit budget requests. These things are being reviewed significantly,” Driskel said.
It is also unclear whether the Senate will revisit the previous budget as the Senate will function with the new budget. The governor hopes lawmakers will focus on other issues for the next year.
“They aren’t dealing with the pressing issues that Floridians care about,” DeSantis said. “We need Florida’s first tax package, which cuts the number one tax that hurts Florida people, a property tax.”
Miami-Dade’s outside House Speaker Danny Perez said he’s waiting for more information to make that happen.
“If the governor makes a proposal to us, we can have that conversation. We have a great relationship with an open line of communication with the governor,” Perez said.
Next year’s budget will come into effect on July 1st. However, proposals to reduce property taxes require voter approval. It also affects local government funding.
“I hope everyone agrees that they want to cut property taxes. The question is, ‘How do you do that?'” Perez said.
As questions continue to revolve around property taxes, state Republicans have rolled out plans to permanently cut sales tax from 6% to 5.25%. Perez says Floridians will save $5 billion a year. Sales taxes help you to bill statewide services.
