Governor Ron DeSantis has signed the state’s budget with just one day left before the start of the new fiscal year.
The legislative session ran 45 days over schedule as the House and Senate hit a stalemate over the budget. Eventually lawmakers came to an agreement and passed their spending plan last month. The governor brought the final product in for a landing during a signing in the Villages.
DeSantis cut about $500 million through line-item vetoes, and now says he’s happy with the final product.
“If you take Florida's 180-year history, and you take the debt that's been accumulated just since I've been governor, we've already retired over 41% of it, and then this budget is going to help us retire more at an accelerated basis,” he said.
But even though this battle is over, the governor still took the opportunity to sling arrows at leadership in the Florida House who he said contributed to the budget standoff.
House Speaker Daniel Perez wanted a permanent sales tax reduction and steeper budget cuts than DeSantis and leaders in the Senate wanted. Ultimately, DeSantis won the standoff, working more closely with the Senate throughout the process. DeSantis says he’s hoping next year’s budgeting process goes more smoothly.
“You would not want to rerun that movie script. You know, if you're the leadership in the Florida House of Representatives, it did not work. You did not have a mandate to do that, and so I think it'd be better, you know, to not constantly be at war with the Senate, not constantly be at war with the governor, but actually do what the voters sent you there to do,” he said.
Some sales tax cuts did come through with this budget. Sales tax is permanently eliminated on certain disaster and hurricane preparedness supplies. A permanent back-to-school sales tax holiday was enacted in the month of August.
DeSantis’ biggest ask, removing the state’s property taxes, did not come to fruition this session. Making the cut would require a ballot initiative approved by voters, but lawmakers have already begun talks about putting that provision forward next session with plans for it to go on the ballot in 2026.