Special Session Update: Budget Still Not Finished
The Legislature came back to Tallahassee on May 12 for a special session to hammer out an agreement on the new state budget, the budget implementing and conforming bills, and the tax package. The Conference Committees ended their work on May 15 with many issues still unresolved. Those issues have been “bumped” to the House and Senate Appropriations Committee chairs to (hopefully) finish the job.
Chairs McClure and Hooper are expected to work over the weekend but there will not be any public conference meetings before 10:00 a.m. on Monday. The Speaker and President told members they can go home and do not need to return until the week of Memorial Day (May 25) for scheduled votes on the budget and related bills.
Lawmakers came into the special session needing to reconcile a $1.4 billion difference between the Senate ($115.0 billion) and House ($113.6 billion) budgets. But the two chambers do not just differ on money, there are many policy disputes that need to be worked out in budget proviso language and the budget related bills.
The budget chairs and the presiding officers have a lot left to work out, including funding for Everglades Restoration, school vouchers, preeminent universities, and housing. The House has also remained opposed to several of Governor DeSantis priorities that the Senate funded, including the Job Growth Grant Fund, the Florida State Guard, a cancer research innovation fund, and a program to test food for toxins and heavy metals.
There was no work done on the tax package in public this week. The Senate proposed $78 million in tax relief, the House offered more than $300 million. This will be finalized when legislators return after Memorial Day. To see the many provisions in the House and Senate tax packages see the Florida TaxWatch Session Wrap-Up.
