TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014 For the second consecutive year, the Florida Legislature adjourned its regular session without passing a state budget, forcing lawmakers to return to Tallahassee next month to resolve a $1.4 billion spending dispute.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Florida lawmakers concluded the 2026 Legislative Session without approving a state budget
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It’s the second regular session in a row where they’ve failed to agree on spending
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Lawmakers will meet in April to restart negotiations
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Other issues are expected to be addressed in special sessions too, including property tax<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to continuing this work with each of you as we finalize a budget that reflects the priorities of this chamber and fulfills our responsibility to the people of Florida,\u201d said House Speaker Danny Perez, R-Miami.<\/p>\n
The breakdown came after weeks of closed-door meetings between House and Senate leaders that failed to bridge differences over state spending priorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI respect the priorities of each party because we all have a role to play, and a balanced budget that keeps Florida strong, safe and free,\u201d\u00a0said Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Bartow.<\/p>\n
The special session, scheduled for mid-April, may also consider property taxes. Lawmakers are considering proposals aimed at making Florida the first state in the nation to eliminate property tax \u2014 an idea backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and several Republican leaders.<\/p>\n
Rep. Toby Overdorf, R-Stuart, said he expects a propery tax proposal could appear on the ballot before voters come November 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe governor has made a lot of promises. We delivered on those promises. However, we haven’t seen legislation come forward,\u201d Overdorf said.<\/p>\n
Democrats criticized the stalemate, calling it another example of legislative dysfunction.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got one constitutional obligation, and that is to pass a balanced budget for the people of Florida. And we keep missing the mark because we can\u2019t get past this infighting,\u201d said House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s 60-day session concluded with fewer approved bills than in years past, at least compared to the 2025 and 2024 sessions.<\/p>\n
Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, lamented the lack of progress on pocketbook issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really a shame that we\u2019ve had 60 days, and we have almost nothing to show the state for affordability issues,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Alongside the budget special session, lawmakers are also called to return later in the year for another session to address congressional redistricting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014 For the second consecutive year, the Florida Legislature adjourned its regular session without passing a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[3140,6074,28,2203,115,139,99,232,234,233,135,835],"class_list":["post-191441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-capital-connection","tag-florida","tag-jason-delgado","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-politics","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-tampa","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191441","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=191441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}