TALHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) — Time is ticked when state lawmakers in Tallahassee clash with budget negotiations. The 60-day legislative meeting was to wrap on Friday, May 2, but the Senate and House leaders are struggling to agree to the budget.
Before the session began, Senate Speaker Ben Albritton, House Speaker Daniel Perez and Gov. Ron DeSantis announced this year’s United Front after making a difference during the immigration special session.
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“We look forward to working with the governor over the next two years and building a budget that will allow us to get the job done for Floridians,” Albritton said.
But now, 56 days after the session, House and Senate leaders cannot fill the gap.
“We are disappointed to report that we have not yet reached an allocation agreement with the House of Representatives. The biggest hurdle at this point is related to tax easing, both number and policy,” said Albritton.
The Senate introduced a permanent elimination of shoe and clothing sales taxes below $75. The House proposed reducing the state’s total sales tax rate from 6% to 5.25%, hoping to save Floridians $5 billion a year.
President Albritton appears to have not signed the House proposal, which has led Perez to fight back against the debate.
“At the end, I’m just uncomfortable with the suggestion I think it’s likely to lead to a shortage in an out-year period, if not a significant shortage,” Albritton said.
“As negotiations progressed, the Senate continued to provide greater spending than they had passed from their floors. We moved a billion dollars towards them, and they refused to move us a penny,” Perez said.
As House and Senate leadership fight their differences, political analyst Tara Newsom says the real question now isn’t to hand over the budget before the session rap, but rather to tackle the important issues Florida voters want to address?
“Instead, they’re working on the tax cuts and sales tax debate — all important, but perhaps for Florida voters, it’s not as important as home insurance, condo crisis, healthcare, education, and more,” Newsmom said.
House minority leader Fentris Driskel (D-Tampa) was added to the conversation, criticising DeSantis, saying he has not given the Senate and House leadership in the session.
“We don’t have a budget allocation yet because Republican House and Senate leaders can’t agree on how much money they’ll spend on silos with different budgets,” Driskel said. “In Florida, the Republican governor and both rooms have to have every session that gives them a balanced budget, not stopping the fight to what is constitutionally necessary.”
Congress has several options to move forward. They can extend their current session for about a week to pass final budgets, take breaks, or come back this summer for special sessions.
From what Albritton understands, lawmakers can not only focus on the budget in additional special sessions, but also on important issues that have not reached the finish line.
