Further Session Extension

President Albritton sent members of the Florida Senate an update on the session extension Friday. He does not expect to begin budget conference next week (May 12-16, 2025).

President Albritton Memo re: Extended Session Planning

Chair Hooper and I are continuing to work with our House partners to finalize joint allocations needed to complete our work on the budget as expeditiously and responsibly as possible. For your planning purposes, we do not expect to begin conference next week (May 12-16, 2025). As soon as we determine a date to start the budget conference, we will certainly let you know.

As I am sure you are aware, earlier this week Governor DeSantis expressed concern regarding the tax relief framework announced last Friday. Specifically, that the proposal for an across-the-board sales tax cut would unduly benefit tourists and foreigners and is, "dead on arrival." From speaking with Senators, I know many of you share concerns with both the number and the policy of that framework and instead favor targeted tax relief that benefits growing families and seniors aging with dignity, including options the Senate proposed in SB 7034.

The main concerns I heard from Senators were the following:

- An across-the-board sales tax cut of one quarter of one penny is not meaningful, felt, or seen by families and seniors when compared with other available options.

- A $2.5 billion recurring tax cut is not sustainable when combined with the projected budget shortfalls already on the horizon.

- A $2.5 billion recurring tax cut may constrain options for the major property tax reform the Governor, House, and Senate, and most importantly – the Floridians we represent – are asking us to put forward.

Throughout the entire course of negotiations with the House, the Senate has been and remains committed to tax cuts that offer broad-based and meaningful tax relief for families, seniors, and small businesses. As negotiations move forward, Chair Hooper and I will continue seeking your advice and feedback. It is important to me that we develop a tax relief package that is sustainable for the long term and leaves room in our balanced budget for the voters to consider meaningful property tax relief on the ballot at the next general election. We will continue to work towards a final budget and tax relief package the House, Senate and Governor can support. 

Speaker Daniel Perez sent members of the Florida House of Representatives an update on the session extension Friday. The House will meet on Tuesday, May 13, to hold a floor session to pass a concurrent resolution extending the timeline through the end of June, after budget negotiations stalled this week.

Speaker Perez

Memo re: Extended Session Update

I apologize for the lateness of this update, but circumstances have changed significantly from when we were together last Friday. The Senate President informed me this week that he is breaking his commitment to the House that he publicly announced from the Senate rostrum. I was disappointed when the Senate President informed me of his decision to no longer bring the House's historic tax proposal to the Senate floor. As I'm sure you can appreciate, this blew up the framework for the budget deal we had negotiated.

As a result, we will be in touch with alternative dates as soon as possible. I'm keenly aware that the uncertainty around the schedule causes problems for you and your families, but we will continue to work with the Senate to lock down dates as soon as practical.

Members, while the deal has blown up, we will still be meeting on Tuesday, May 13 to hold a floor session to pass a concurrent resolution extending the timeline through the end of June. We will also hold a meeting of the Select Committee on Property Taxes.

While the circumstances leading to this conference are less than ideal or even expected, as Members of the Florida House, our responsibilities do not change. We will deliver a fiscally conservative budget that cuts government waste and puts Florida on the best possible trajectory for long-term success.