Legislative leaders said Thursday evening they hope to finish a budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year on Friday so it can go before the House and Senate early next week.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Ed Hooper, R-Trinity, said he and House Budget Chairman Lawrence McClure, R-Dover, have committed to having a budget finalized for Monday votes. “We’re hopeful that occurs,” Hooper said.
The budget, related bills and a tax package were expected to be completed May 2, the scheduled end of the annual legislative session. But the House and Senate could not reach agreement, leading to an extension of the session. The 2025-2026 fiscal year will start July 1.
If the budget is finished Friday, the earliest lawmakers could vote would be Monday because of a required 72-hour “cooling off” period. Hooper and McClure have worked behind the scenes this week to work out differences, with little discussion in public.
“There’s no reason for us to come out here --- and all these people show up --- if we don’t have something to offer,” Hooper said after Thursday evening’s meeting. “We could have come last evening with criminal justice (the criminal justice part of the budget). It’s not worth having all of you coming out at 8 o’clock at night to hear one little (offer).”
Hooper and McClure on Thursday swapped proposals about issues including education, transportation and criminal and civil justice.
Among the proposals included providing $351 million to continue the Moving Florida Forward program, which was introduced two years ago to speed work on 20 road projects across the state. The funding is tied to a House proposal calling for $100 million for improvements to a stretch of Kendall Parkway in South Florida.
The House also offered to expand 2 percent raises going to most state employees to include members of the state Supreme Court, whose salaries would be bumped up to $264,136 a year; Public Service Commission members, who would go up to $158,094; and state attorneys and public defenders, who would go up to $223,318.
The governor and state Cabinet members wouldn’t be included in the pay raises. Lawmakers already had approved providing state law-enforcement officers and firefighters with additional raises of 8 percent to 13 percent on top of the 2 percent hikes.
