TALHASSEE — Florida legislative leaders said this will be an affordable year.
They had plans to tackle the high costs of housing, property insurance and taxes. The House Speaker wanted a $5 billion sales tax easing. The governor proposed a plan to abolish property taxes. The Senate president called for hundreds of millions of dollars in investment to trigger a “rural renaissance” in Florida.
But in the end, their $115 billion budget primarily gave tax cuts to businesses. The sales tax proposal never came to fruition. The Senate bill, which outlines the investigation into property tax relief, went anywhere. The Senate President’s Rural Renaissance Act was cut in negotiations.
“I have not seen any transformational policies that improve the lives of Florida people,” minority leader Fentrice Driskell told reporters at the Capitol while the budget was being discussed.
“In fact, by my estimation,” said Doriskel, a Tampa Democrat. “We’re actually cutting down on affordable housing funds.”
Doriskel said the “republican civil war” will take control of Florida politics this year and slow progress.
The legislative session was intended to be 60 days. Finally, it ended on the 105th day of negotiations after 11pm on Monday. The Republican civil war, as some have put it, began in January over immigration enforcement and continues to this day through Hope Florida, a first-lady-led program and charity aimed at banishing low-income people from government aid.
House Speaker Daniel Perez defended the budget to reporters and defended how long it took to craft.
“It’s easy to jump all of a sudden to the conclusion that you’re the enemy, just because you have a civic discourse or because you have a difference of opinion,” said Perez, a Miami Republican.
When asked why he cut down on the Senate President’s rural Renaissance project, he said:
Perez said the council’s decision to cut disaster mitigation sales tax cuts all year round and extend the one-month return to school holidays were both “wins” for consumers. And they come into effect every year without legislative votes. This is different from the past few years.
“We officially planted the flag and said, ‘This is important and it’s important enough to make it permanent,'” Perez said. “I think we hit 1,000.”
“Did we change our position along the way? Of course, for the better.”
Lawmakers also abolished the business rent tax. Leaders of both parties said they wanted to help small businesses. And they raised wages for state workers.
Senate Speaker Ben Albritton said he remained on one of his major initiatives, the $50 million budget, and continued to invest twice as much as last year’s budget to address food insecurity.
“It’s not handouts, it’s hand-up, especially for hungry children in Florida,” said Albritton.
Big beautiful bill
Hungry children in Florida could be hungry when one big beautiful bill passes by in Congress.
Experts believe the law defended by Republican President Donald Trump includes deep fiscal cuts to government-supported food and healthcare programs.
Food aid cuts are expected to affect nearly 3 million Floridians, the Miami Herald reported at the end of May. Cuts to Medicaid could cost as much as $2 billion a year in Florida, KFF reported this month.
Medicaid officials told lawmakers on June 4 that the state’s healthcare administration was “preparing” for cuts, but the agency has yet to release details.
Sen. Jay Trumbull, a Panama City Republican who oversees the Health Budget Panel in his room, said in a floor discussion there is nothing in the budget to address potential federal changes to the program.
But it is clear that Republicans are anticipating a softer economy in the future. One signal is that they have secured $200 million in additional funding for Medicaid and expect more people to be eligible for government-funded health insurance.
They are also preparing to spend less, pay off more debts and increase reserves.
“We want to have a more robust rainy day fund,” said Albritton, Republican Senate president of Wautula.
“How do you prepare Florida for a list of uncertainties?”
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau Reporter Lawrence Mower contributed to this report.
