For the second year in a row, the Florida Legislature ended its 60-day session without completing its only constitutionally required task — passing a state budget. House Speaker Daniel Perez cited a "fundamental disagreement on what the state budget should look like," with the House seeking to spend less and the Senate more. The House and Senate budget proposals total $113.6 billion and $115.0 billion, respectively.
The gridlock rippled across the entire session. Only 192 general bills passed — fewer than usual — as priority legislation on property tax relief, an artificial intelligence bill of rights, vaccine opt-out expansion, rural development, school choice scholarship reform, and Medicaid oversight all failed to reach the Governor's desk. No final tax package was agreed upon; both the House (HB 7031) and Senate (SB 7046) versions ultimately collapsed, leaving only a corporate income tax decoupling provision from the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Lawmakers are expected to return to Tallahassee in mid-April — after Easter and Passover (April 9) — to resolve the budget, a potential property tax relief constitutional amendment, a state tax package, and congressional redistricting starting April 20. Florida TaxWatch releases this Pre-Budget Edition of our annual Legislative Session Wrap-Up to bring you up to date on what passed and what didn't, with a full follow-up planned once budget conference concludes.
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