Florida lawmakers head into overtime budget negotiations — again. What to watch

Florida lawmakers return to the Capitol on Tuesday for a two-week special session that will determine how the state spends roughly $115 billion next year — and test whether Republican leaders can finally move past the bruising power struggles that derailed the regular legislative session.

The state’s GOP supermajority will confront a pile of unresolved fights with major consequences for Floridians: whether struggling school districts get financial relief, how much money goes toward Everglades restoration, whether taxes are cut and how aggressively the state prepares for possible federal funding reductions.

The budget is the only bill the Legislature is constitutionally required to pass each year. But after 60 days of regular session meetings, House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton — both Republicans — adjourned in March without a spending agreement, marking the second consecutive year lawmakers failed to finish on time.

Now, with a July 1 constitutional deadline looming, legislators are expected to spend the next two weeks hammering out a compromise budget shaped by competing Republican visions for the future of state government.

The House entered negotiations pushing for a leaner spending plan and long-term restraint after years of rapid budget growth under Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Senate favored a larger budget and a more cautious approach to cuts, particularly as uncertainty grows over potential federal funding reductions.

The divide between the chambers was significant. The Senate proposed a roughly $115 billion budget during the regular session, while the House backed a smaller $113.6 billion plan.

“We will not be pushed by artificial deadlines,” Perez told House members late in the regular session as negotiations stalled.

The fight has become about far more than numbers on a spreadsheet.

Perez has spent the past two years trying to reassert the Legislature as an equal branch of government after years of DeSantis dominating Tallahassee. The House has aggressively questioned the governor’s spending, investigated programs tied to his administration and challenged priorities once considered politically untouchable.

The result has been one of the most openly hostile periods in recent Florida political history.

Last year, Perez compared DeSantis to “a seventh grader” during a bitter fight over tax cuts and spending. DeSantis responded by barnstorming the state and publicly attacking House leadership over issues ranging from Everglades funding to the House investigation into the Hope Florida Foundation, the charity initiative associated with First Lady Casey DeSantis.

Even tensions between the House and Senate — typically quieter than public fights with the governor — have spilled into the open.

At one point last year, senators from both parties gave unusually emotional and heated speeches after the House stripped a proposal naming a University of South Florida mental health center after Democratic Sen. Darryl Rouson, a longtime Tampa Bay lawmaker in recovery from substance abuse.

Perez accused senators of trying to “emotionally blackmail” the House to fund the center. Republican Sen. Ed Hooper of Palm Harbor, the upper chamber’s budget chief, warned House lawmakers: “We will make it right. Or else.”

That kind of drama now hangs over nearly every major budget issue lawmakers will tackle during the special session. And in an interview on Thursday, Hooper seemed blasé about stepping into the ring for another round.

“It’s been a frustrating two years. … The House has refused to fund anything that was a priority of the Senate President or the governor,” he said. “I’m going on a cruise vacation whether we finish or not.”

Schools face financial strain

One of the biggest battles centers on public education.

School districts across Florida are warning about layoffs, shrinking enrollment and rising costs as more students leave traditional public schools for charter schools and private schools, in many cases, using vouchers.

Yet Republican leaders remain firmly committed to expanding school choice.

The tension exploded this week when the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest education union, filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Florida’s voucher and charter school systems, arguing the state is diverting money away from traditional public schools while holding private schools to different standards.

“We will stand up for the parents and students and defend these programs,” DeSantis said Thursday.

Lawmakers are also weighing whether to tighten oversight of the voucher system after recent state audits uncovered accountability problems.

And school officials worry lawmakers could once again use the bill that implements the budget — often approved in the chaotic final hours of negotiations — to pass major education policy changes that failed during the regular session.

That happened last year when lawmakers revived legislation allowing charter schools to operate inside under-capacity public school buildings.

Everglades funding turns political

Environmental spending has become another keystone of the broader Republican infighting.

DeSantis has repeatedly pressured lawmakers to maintain massive Everglades restoration spending, one of the defining environmental initiatives of his administration.

The Senate largely aligned with the governor. The House did not.

Last year, DeSantis accused House leaders of opposing Everglades funding simply because it was one of his priorities.

“A lot of the reason they’re doing it is because the leadership in the House of Representatives has taken a position that if I’m for something, that it’s their view to just oppose us,” DeSantis said during an Earth Day event in Naples.

Perez fired back, accusing the governor of either misleading the public or failing to read the House budget.

The disagreement remains unresolved heading into the special session.

This year, the Senate proposed roughly $739 million for Everglades projects. The House proposed closer to $349 million. DeSantis requested $810 million and warned lawmakers he could call yet another special session later this year if restoration funding is significantly reduced.

Tax cuts, federal fears and veto threats

Underlying the entire debate is a basic philosophical divide.

Perez and House leaders argue Florida’s budget has ballooned too quickly during years of explosive population growth that also saw an influx of federal pandemic aid. Since DeSantis took office in 2019, the state budget has grown by more than 26%.

The House earlier pushed a dramatic reduction in the state sales tax — pitched as the largest tax cut in Florida history — before the proposal collapsed.

The Senate took a more cautious approach, warning that Florida may soon face major reductions in federal funding for Medicaid, food assistance and disaster recovery programs.

“There were contributing factors that largely were out of the control of either chamber,” House budget chair Lawrence McClure said previously about the prolonged negotiations.

The possibility of an economic downturn has only added to the tension, and looming over everything is DeSantis’ veto pen.

Last year, the governor slashed hundreds of millions of dollars from the budget, including projects backed by Republican lawmakers who had criticized his administration or supported investigations into Hope Florida.

Lawmakers know any final agreement could still face major cuts once it reaches the governor’s desk.

Legislative leaders say they expect the special session to end by May 29, leaving enough time to comply with Florida’s required 72-hour cooling-off period before final votes.