Florida Legislature Ends Session Without Budget for Second Straight Year

TALLAHASSEE — For the second consecutive year, Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature ended its regular session Friday without a state budget, exposing a deepening rift between House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton that is now threatening to dominate the Capitol's political calendar well into spring.

Lawmakers gaveled out at 3:15 p.m. Friday — without the traditional hanky drop ceremony and without a spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The scene echoed last year's collapse, when a standoff over tax cuts forced a special session.

This time, the gap is stark and structural. The House passed a $113.6 billion budget. The Senate prefers $115 billion. Perez has insisted on spending less than the current $114.8 billion plan. The two chambers have not agreed on a topline number — the bare minimum required before formal conference negotiations can begin.

"There's a subtext of animosity and mistrust," said Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, a former Senate president. "And I think that's in our way."

Perez and Albritton have agreed to return to Tallahassee in mid-April to finish the job. But with rural community negotiations described by Albritton himself as "just beginning," and with no accord on how to divide funding across health care, education, transportation, and economic development, the timeline is optimistic at best.

Gov. Ron DeSantis did not hide his frustration. He publicly criticized Perez and House leadership for failing to pass two of his top priority bills — a measure expanding vaccine exemptions for public school students and legislation imposing new regulations on artificial intelligence companies. The Senate passed both. The House did not.

"It seems to me you're fumbling right on the goal line here," DeSantis said. "Punch it in for the touchdown and get it done."

DeSantis also blasted the House for pushing cuts to Everglades restoration projects and threatened a veto if such reductions appear in the final budget.

The Senate separately blocked a plan to restore the Ocklawaha River, a long-sought environmental priority According to available information,.

Lawmakers did manage one notable act of executive accommodation before leaving: renewing DeSantis's emergency fund with new oversight rules attached According to available information,.

At least two special sessions are already on the horizon — one on congressional redistricting, already called by DeSantis, and a second on property tax cuts, widely expected. Budget negotiations will almost certainly fold into that mix, raising questions about what priority legislation gets bundled in when the chambers reconvene.

"There's still plenty of time to be able to get the budget accomplished, make sure that it's fair and equitable," Albritton told reporters Friday. He did not specify what it would take to close the gap.

Nearly 2,000 bills were filed this session. A little over 10 percent passed both chambers.

House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa offered the sharpest summary of the session's relevance to ordinary Floridians. "Floridians don't care about the infighting," she said. "All they know is that they have an affordability crisis. Gas is too expensive, housing is too expensive, groceries, the cost of that is high, utilities as well, and they want solutions."

They will have to wait.

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