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<\/a>\nLawmakers in Tallahassee prepare to reach deal with state budget<\/p>\n
Florida lawmakers have returned to Tallahassee to resume work on the state budget.<\/p>\n
This is now the second special session for Florida lawmakers since their regularly-scheduled 60-day legislative session ended on March 13.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s now the second consecutive year Florida Republicans couldn\u2019t finish the budget on time. Completing the state budget is the one thing that they are constitutionally required to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can feel the energy is completely different, you know. Now we are completely here to work. We understand there\u2019s at least a light at the end of the tunnel. And I think there\u2019s a level of seriousness to that point, and I think we\u2019re going to get it done,\u201d State Rep. Danny Alvarez said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s taken them all of 2026 to meet in the middle over about a $1.4 billion disagreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been personality, it\u2019s been old grudges and that sort of thing that\u2019s kept us apart. But I think those days are gone. I think now there is a view that we\u2019re going to put all their swords down and we\u2019re going to get a budget done, get the people\u2019s business done,\u201d State Sen. Don Gaetz said.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers are giving themselves two weeks to crunch numbers and reach an agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should have completed this in the 60-day regular session. It\u2019s a shame that the people of Florida are the victims of this, frankly, overreach and infighting and dysfunction within the majority party,\u201d State Rep. Fentrice Driskell said.<\/p>\n
Members will meet up throughout the week, trying to find some common ground. The big goal is to get everything said and done, wrapped up before May 29.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, this process takes some time, especially when we\u2019re fighting for a fair and balanced budget. You know, we need to make sure that we get it right for Floridians,\u201d State Rep. Danny Nix Jr. said.<\/p>\n
The final budget agreement might range from $113 billion to $115 billion.<\/p>\n
Some key issues here, among others, include school funding, environmental protection, affordability initiatives and more.<\/p>\n
DeSantis signs pet safety bills into law<\/p>\n
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a pair of bills into law Tuesday focused on ensuring animal welfare and protecting pet owners from potentially predatory practices.<\/p>\n
The two bills will take effect in July and build on existing law to help in the creation of a statewide registry for people convicted of animal abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are really great reforms. It builds off of a lot of what we\u2019ve been doing over many many years. And I\u2019m glad that we\u2019re here to be able to make it official,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n
The governor referenced several other actions his administration has taken against animal cruelty in recent years, including Trooper\u2019s Law, which allows felony charges for anyone who abandons a dog during a natural disaster.<\/p>\n
That law was inspired by a dog left chained up during Hurricane Milton, who was rescued by Florida Highway Patrol troopers.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/mynews13.com\/fl\/orlando\/political-connections\/2026\/05\/08\/iran-war-latest–virginia-redistricting-ruling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida lawmakers prepare to tackle the state budget in a new special session, and President Donald Trump discusses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[115,139,2206,275,232,234,233,135,835],"class_list":["post-269492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-political-connections","tag-spectrum-news-staff","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\/269492","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=269492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}