Florida lawmakers finally schedule session to pass a budget

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - After weeks of delays, Florida's legislative leaders announced Thursday they reached an agreement on an outline for a state budget for the next fiscal year.

State lawmakers will have to return to Tallahassee for two weeks beginning May 12 to work out the details in a special session.

"Our final budget will be lower than Florida's state budget for the current fiscal year, facilitating long-term financial stability and continuing our focus on keeping taxes low, paying down debt and saving for the future," Senate President Ben Albritton, a Wauchula Republican, wrote to senators Thursday.

Albritton and House Speaker Daniel Perez, a Miami Republican, agreed to nearly $52 billion in spending across eight different budget categories, such as health care, public education and the environment. (The final budget will be over $100 billion after including federal and other obligated money.)

Reaching an agreement on those numbers is the first step to passing a budget - and it was supposed to happen during the regular session, which ended March 13.

But the session was derailed by GOP infighting and what Perez called "a fundamental disagreement on what the budget should look like."

The budget the House passed was smaller, and the two chambers disagreed on how much to spend on schools, the environment, affordable housing and other issues.

Perez wrote to representatives Thursday that "for the second consecutive year, our budget will reduce overall government spending while responsibly directing taxpayer dollars toward essential priorities."

The details behind those numbers will be worked out in May.

Lawmakers still have a busy few months ahead of them. Gov. Ron DeSantis called them to return to Tallahassee next week to redraw the state's congressional map.

He also wants them to pass regulations around artificial intelligence and allow parents to opt their children out of school immunization requirements next week - issues the Legislature refused to pass during the regular session.

DeSantis also wants them to pass a proposal for the November ballot that would lower property taxes. A special session to do that has not been called, and DeSantis has released no details about what the proposal would look like.

At a Thursday news conference, DeSantis again offered no details but guaranteed that Floridians would have something to vote on in November.

"There will be something on the ballot," DeSantis said.

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(Times/Herald Tallahassee bureau reporter Garrett Shanley contributed to this report.)

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This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 1:30 PM.