TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – Florida lawmakers are positioned to negotiate the state\u2019s multi-billion-dollar budget after the Senate passed its proposal in a rare Friday session, with chambers facing a $1.4 billion gap between their competing plans.<\/p>\n
The Senate passed a $115 billion budget Friday, while the House passed its $113.6 billion budget Thursday. The difference between the two proposals is significantly smaller than last year\u2019s gap.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have produced, for two years in a row, a budget that lowered spending over the prior year,\u201d said Rep. Daniel Perez, the Republican House Speaker.<\/p>\n
Both chambers agree on cutting the state budget, but must now work to resolve their differences. The House and Senate need to close the $1.4 billion gap through negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the great recession, the Florida House has produced its proposed General Appropriations Act by Week 6 and here we are today \u2013 on time and ready to proceed,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n
Communication between the chambers has been strained. The Senate delayed its budget release, but the House released its proposal the same day anyway. Perez told representatives the House is ready to work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will talk to anyone; anytime; about anything. We will never let personalities or past resentments impede our work,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n
Senate President Ben Albritton said the work should be easier, given that the chambers are much closer than where they started last year, which resulted in an extended session.<\/p>\n
Florida Politics: <\/p>\n
\u201cLooking at the totals by silos, we\u2019ve got a starting place. I look forward to having the conversations and expect those to begin quickly,\u201d Albritton said.<\/p>\n
Leaders first need to agree on funding levels for areas including education, healthcare, and transportation. The goal is to complete the budget by day 60 of the legislative session.<\/p>\n
Democrats in both chambers hope that timeline can be met.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe we should be here for the nine weeks that we are supposed to be here for and not go beyond that. There are three weeks,\u201d said Sen. Lori Berman, the Democratic Minority Leader.<\/p>\n
Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, a Democrat from Parkland, said lawmakers have sufficient time to complete their work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re all keeping hope alive. We have one constitutional responsibility to pass a balanced budget. We have 60 days to do that. That\u2019s ample time, and if we\u2019re serving the people, that\u2019s where we\u2019ll end up,\u201d Hunschofsky said.<\/p>\n
Perez said the House will not be rushed in its negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease understand, we will not be pushed by artificial deadlines. We will not sacrifice a little integrity to gain a little time,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n
The legislature will pass a smaller budget than last year and smaller than what Gov. Ron DeSantis is proposing this year.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – Florida lawmakers are positioned to negotiate the state\u2019s multi-billion-dollar budget after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[9935,1442,28,2161,1443,99,232,234,233],"class_list":{"0":"post-163971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tallahassee","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-cody-butler","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-government","12":"tag-legislature","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-tallahassee","15":"tag-tallahassee-headlines","16":"tag-tallahassee-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}