TALLAHASSEE – Two former local elected officials and a nonprofit group filed suit Thursday in Leon County Circuit Court against the property tax cut amendment placed on the November ballot by lawmakers, alleging it is misleading.
The group is called Save Our Voters From Misleading Ballot Language and the two officials are Thomas Campenni, former Mayor of Stuart, and Michael Davey, former Mayor of Key Biscayne.

They claim the ballot measure (HJR 1F), which seeks to increase the existing $50,000 tax exemption for homestead properties to $150,000 in 2027 and to $250,000 in 2028, would deceive voters.
“The ballot summary does not merely describe the Proposed Constitutional Amendment – it endorses it,” the lawsuit states. “The ballot summary … sets forth three political taglines – ‘ensuring funding for core services,’ ‘protecting small businesses,’ and ‘ensuring fairness for Florida residents’ – giving reasons why voters should vote for the proposal. But the purpose of a ballot summary is to explain what an amendment does, not to advocate for its adoption.”
But even if the court finds the ballot summary is misleading, that wouldn’t erase the measure from the ballot.
Under state law, Attorney General James Uthmeier would be required to amend the ballot summary if it is found to be defective.
Lawmakers passed the measure after it was drafted by DeSantis’ office. GOP leaders amended it to exempt taxes levied to fund schools, but city and county officials across the state have warned if voters approve it their budgets – and the services they provide to residents – will suffer.
DeSantis and supporters of the measure, though, have largely waved those critiques away, claiming local governments have overtaxed homeowners as property values have risen in recent years and now they need to rein in spending.
According to a House staff analysis the measure could cost local governments $8.4 billion per year, if it gets the necessary 60 percent support from voters to pass into law.
A spokeswoman for DeSantis didn’t immediately respond to an email Thursday.
The lawsuit claims several pieces of the ballot summary are misleading.
The phrase “ensuring funding for core services” is a misnomer, the lawsuit claims, because it drastically cuts property tax revenues. The proposed amendment would require cities and counties to spend property tax revenues on a list of “core services,” including public safety, but it also lowers the amount of money available for those services.
The lawsuit also takes issue with the phrase “protecting small businesses,” as there’s no provision that marks such business out for special treatment. There is a provision lowering the current 10 percent cap on annual assessment increases for non-homestead properties to 5 percent, but that applies to more than just small businesses.
“The Proposed Constitutional Amendment broadly limits future assessment increases on all categories of non-homesteaded property, and provides no protection to small businesses, or other non-homesteaded property, from the expected higher taxes resulting from increases in millages rates necessary to offset (at least partially) the loss of tax base caused by the amendment,” the lawsuit states.
Another misleading piece, according to the lawsuit, is it’s expressed intent to eventually eliminate all non-school homestead property taxes, something DeSantis has said is his goal. But although the measure directs the Legislature to set up a structure to allow local governments to phase out homestead property taxes, that’s short of a mandatory full elimination.
“The actual proposed constitutional language does not require the ‘full elimination,’” the lawsuit states. “Rather, it requires the Legislature to establish procedures through which local governments may choose to grant additional exemptions in the future ‘up to’ the full assessed valuation.”

TALLAHASSEE – Florida heads into the hurricane season with a budget now in place, even if for a second consecutive year it took longer than expected, with a third special session on the horizon.
Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a $114.5 billion spending plan Friday, wrapping up a special session to complete the budget 77 days after they failed to do so during the regular session.

BETTER LATE

The Senate voted unanimously in favor of the budget and the House voted 99-6 for the plan, but the vast support for the measure belied the tense process to produce it.
House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, insisted on cutting the current budget of more than $115 billion, while Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, preferred to keep funding essentially level.
The budget includes $30 billion for K-12 schools, with $201 million for teacher pay increases. That raise, though, will only go to teachers with 10 years of experience, with the increase capped at $3,000 per year.
Republicans said they wanted to use the money to prevent veteran teachers from leaving the field.
Democrats, though, said the funding isn’t enough, as many districts faced potential cuts this year due to declining enrollment and teachers struggle to keep up with inflation.
There were funds included to mitigate the effect of enrollment declines for school districts, but Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, said that would still leave Orange County with a $13 million shortfall for its schools.
Smith voted for the budget, but also took issue with the zeroing out of preeminence funding for universities. The University of Central Florida recently qualified for the funding, which is designed to push schools to boost research. But now the school won’t be able to receive the money. In the current budget, $40 million was set aside for preeminence funding, which went to the University of Florida, Florida State University, Florida International University and the University of South Florida.
Other Democrats called for raises for all state workers, instead of the 4 percent raises are targeted only corrections officers, state law enforcement officials and firefighters included in the budget.
Still, only six House Democrats voted against the budget, although the main theme from Democrats was that it doesn’t do enough to help Floridians facing cost of living constraints.
“I don’t know what it’s going to take for us to wake up one day and realize that we are really not doing the things for the people in the state of Florida that we should be doing, as opposed to doing what companies need,” said Rep. Dianne Hart-Lowman, D-Tampa, who voted against the budget.

NEXT SESSION SET

Before lawmakers made their way back to Tallahassee for the vote on the budget, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Wednesday he was going to require them to be at the Capitol on Monday to begin a special session on his effort to cut homesteaded property taxes.
The plan as introduced by the Senate (SJR 2F) increases the current exemptions on homestead property to $150,000 starting Jan. 1, 2027, and to $250,000 on Jan. 1, 2028.
If lawmakers place it on the ballot in November and 60 percent of voters approve, the current 10 percent cap on assessments for non-homestead properties will be lowered to 5 percent.
“I want to get something done. I want to make sure people can go and vote for something, and then see something that’s going to be very, very meaningful in their lives,” DeSantis said while at Hilton Garden Inn Tampa Airport Westshore.
Florida Association of Counties deputy executive director Cragin Mosteller said the counties are up for the pending special session conversation, but it needs to be “grounded in real budget math and the long-term needs of Florida’s communities.”
“Floridians want affordability, but eliminating property taxes does not eliminate the cost of infrastructure, emergency response, and other essential local services,” Mosteller replied in an email. “Those costs do not disappear – they shift somewhere else, often onto businesses, renters, and working families.”
The association wasn’t alone in questioning the potential impacts.
Water management proponents noted that if the amendment was already in place, the $698 million in revenue the state’s five water management districts are projected to raise in the next fiscal year to protect groundwater and springs, the Indian River Lagoon, and other impaired waterways would be cut by $251 million.
Meanwhile, Florida Mosquito Control Association President Peter Jiang wrote that, “In a subtropical state where mosquito control has long been integral to public health, economic growth, and everyday life, stable funding for these districts remains critically important to the continued well-being of Florida’s communities.”

JUSTICE LEWIS

Former Florida Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis, one of the state’s last liberal-leaning justices, died Tuesday, the court announced this week.
He was 78.
Lewis, along with justices Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince, frequently bedeviled Republican leaders and business interests for “judicial activism,” until they all left the court together in 2019 because of a mandatory retirement age limit.
“My lessons of life came from being born into generations of coal miners in the mountains of West Virginia and the sense of community and human interaction necessary for survival at that time,” Lewis wrote when he applied to be appointed the state’s top court in 1998.
The West Virginia native was recruited to play basketball at Florida Southern College in Lakeland. He attended the University of Miami School of Law, graduating third in the class of 1972. He would set up a private practice, specializing in civil trial and appellate litigation, after a stint in the U.S. Army.
Lewis was appointed to the state’s top court in 1998 by Gov. Lawton Chiles and was chief justice from 2006 to 2008.
As Chief Justice, Lewis directed an audit of all courts in the state to identify and remove barriers to justice for people with disabilities.
He considered his stop accomplishment as a justice the creation of a justice teaching initiative, where volunteer judges and lawyers went to Florida middle and high schools to bolster civic and law-related education.
Lewis will lie in state in the Florida Supreme Court rotunda from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on June 11. A memorial service will be held in the courtroom of the Florida Supreme Court at 11 a.m. on June 12.

STORY OF THE WEEK: The Florida Legislature belatedly approved a $114.5 billion spending plan for fiscal year 2026-2027 in a special session.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “A state budget is one of the most important responsibilities entrusted to this Legislature, and it should be developed through an open and deliberative process, not last-minute negotiations behind closed doors.” — Jupiter Democratic Rep. Emily Gregory

TALLAHASSEE– Gov. Ron DeSantis still isn’t fully on board with cutting the state gas tax to counter mounting fuel prices.
But as legislative budget leaders head into the Memorial Day weekend having spent the past week of the special session quietly behind closed doors, DeSantis said Friday he’d sign a tax package that includes a reduction in the state’s 22-cent-a-gallon gas tax.
“If they put it in the tax package, I’ll happily sign it,” DeSantis said during a bill signing event in Jacksonville.

BUDGET BATTLES

DeSantis’ comment on a potential portion of the tax package was more than budget negotiators had said most of this week regarding the ongoing talks.
Unresolved issues were tossed to Senate Appropriations Chairman Ed Hooper, R-Trinity, and House Budget Chairman Lawrence McClure, R-Dover, on May 15. They held their first public conference meeting Friday at 4:20 p.m.
“Chair Hooper and I will continue to work on the budget throughout the long weekend,” Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, advised the Senate Friday afternoon. “At this time, our goal is to finalize all decisions and lay the budget on the desk by the close of business on Tuesday evening at the latest. Senators should be prepared to return to Tallahassee on Thursday, May 28 to vote on the budget and related bills on Friday, May 29.”
Because of a required 72-hour cooling-off period, the budget must be “printed” by Tuesday to get a final vote from the House and Senate on Friday.
The gas tax is an issue raised by Democrats for weeks and comes as President Donald Trump has also suggested Congress suspend the 18-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax.
Yet DeSantis isn’t convinced that the change will help as the average gallon of gas in Florida stood at $4.47 on Friday, 18 cents higher than a week ago and $1.57 more than on Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel began military operations against Iran.
“When we did that last time, I think the Legislature was less than impressed on the results,” DeSantis said.
The state lifted the gas tax in 2022 for the month of October, but because of market fluctuations and supply chain pricing, the average savings was about 13 cents per gallon.

AROUND THE SWAMP

Stuart Bell, who stepped down last summer after a decade as president of the University of Alabama, was announced Monday as the lone finalist to be the University of Florida’s next president.
DeSantis was quick to voice support.
“Dr. Bell did much to elevate the University of Alabama when he was the president in Tuscaloosa and I have no doubt that he will help UF reach new heights during his tenure in Gainesville. He is a great selection and has my full support!” DeSantis posted on X on Monday.
But conservatives opposed to diversity, equity and inclusion programs were also quick to take aim at Bell over his past efforts to support DEI initiatives at the Tuscaloosa school.
John Sailer, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, was among those leading the crusade against Bell. His postings on X derided Bell’s “dismal record at Alabama” as not reassuring for those hoping for “continued and deeper reform at the University of Florida.”
Meanwhile, DeSantis’ predecessor, Rick Scott, now a U.S. Senator, also raised questions about the selection.
Scott wrote State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues about the search process that produced just a single finalist, as well as the school’s contract with Donald Landry, who served as interim president since September.
Landry’s contract provided an annual base salary of $2 million and included the potential for another $2 million in severance if he didn’t get the permanent job as president.
“Frankly, what is occurring at UF sounds like something we would see coming out of states like California or New York,” Scott wrote.
Scott also took aim at Attorney General James Uthmeier’s $100,000 contract to teach at UF’s Levin College of Law. The letter included a request for all contracts involving the hiring of elected officials or their family members.

GROUNDING
CELEBRATIONS

Floridians were advised this week they might have to celebrate the nation’s upcoming 250th anniversary without fireworks if heavy, ground-soaking rains don’t soon arrive.
Members of the state Cabinet warned Tuesday they won’t hold back on taking legal action against those responsible for blazes that get out of control and affect residential areas as the peak of an already highly active year for wildfires has yet to arrive.
Attorney General James Uthmeier said his office will hold people accountable if they start “some big bonfire with these drought conditions, and the wind blows, and all of a sudden the neighborhood is on fire, you will be held accountable.”
Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson added that without significant rain to end drought conditions found in 90 percent of the state, alternatives to fireworks could be in order for the Fourth of July.
“You’re talking about … potentially hundreds of thousands of people going out and doing fireworks. You could put the entire state on fire in one evening,” Simpson said.

STORY OF THE WEEK: DeSantis signals he’d sign suspension of state gas tax in tax package.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Have fun. Have a good time. Enjoy some beers over the holidays this summer. But if you’re in one of these burn ban counties … please take this seriously.” – Attorney General James Uthmeier during a press conference on drought conditions and wildfires at the Withlacoochee Forestry Training Center in Brooksville.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Sheriff’s Report is not appearing this week because of the Memorial Day holiday. It will resume next week.

Ocean Conservancy, an environmental advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., is backing a legal challenge to the recent federal approval of exempted fishing permits for Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
The lawsuit was filed May 5 by the Southeastern Fisheries Association, shortly after the National Marine Fisheries Service issued exempted fishing permits allowing the four states to set their own red snapper regulations for state and federal waters.
Earthjustice, a Tallahassee-based environmental law nonprofit representing Ocean Conservancy, announced it was filing an amicus brief in the case on Monday.
The filing states the fishing permits undermine U.S. fisheries law and impose “grave harm not just to the South Atlantic red snapper population and those who depend on it, but to the rational, lawful operations of federal fisheries management itself.”
Ocean Conservancy contends the changes will result in the annual catch limit being exceeded by 20 times. A release from Earthjustice states the annual catch limit for the recreational sector is 22,797 fish. Meanwhile, a recent two-day red snapper fishing season in Florida resulted in 24,885 landed fish.
On May 11, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a 39-day red snapper fishing season in the Atlantic coast this year, an expansion from the two days allowed last year.
DeSantis has long pushed for the federal government to allow longer red snapper seasons in the Atlantic to match the expanded season on Florida’s west coast, where the state manages the red snapper population.
“Every single person I talk to that fishes out there will say (the fish are) everywhere,” DeSantis said during an appearance in Fernandina Beach to announce the Atlantic season. “I don’t believe that the data is accurate. Sure enough, the experience (on the Gulf coast) has shown that that’s the case.”

TALLAHASSEE – Special session season will soon be a reality in Florida.
Long awaited, the Senate on Friday published its bills for the non-congressional redistricting side of the session Gov. Ron DeSantis called, which begins on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the House and Senate went public a day earlier with plans to discuss the budget over three weeks in May.

The wait, however, continues for lawmakers to take up DeSantis’ request for a property tax proposal for the November ballot.

THE BENJAMINS

More than a month after ending the regular session without passing a budget, legislative leaders said Thursday they have a deal on spending levels for the different sections of the fiscal plan.
In separate memos to members, House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, and Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, stated the special session to hammer out the budget will run May 12-29. The formal proclamation of the session still awaits.
“I am pleased to announce that, for the second consecutive year, our budget will reduce overall government spending while responsibly directing taxpayer dollars toward essential priorities,” Perez wrote in his memo.
During the regular session the Senate passed a $115 billion budget and the House passed a $113.6 billion spending plan. Perez, though, insisted on a budget less than the current year’s level of $115.1 billion.

SPECIAL SESSION

The Senate reintroduced bills on Friday regarding vaccine mandates (SB 6D) and artificial intelligence regulations (SB 2D and SB 4D) that the House didn’t address during the regular session that ended March 13.
But the wait continued Friday afternoon on DeSantis to produce map changes.
“We are awaiting a communication from the Governor’s Office regarding congressional redistricting,” Albritton advised members in a memo.
Awaiting the special session, Democrats noted Florida’s constitution prohibits partisan gerrymandering. But some have taken a “bring it on” attitude.
Pointing to a series of special election wins over the past year, including a couple in Florida, U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declared “Republicans are dummymandering their way into the minority before a single vote is cast.”
The House Majority PAC also announced it was putting $20 million into Florida for the 2026 contests, targeting six Republican districts in Miami, Tampa and Orlando.

Jeffries, D-NY, expanded the targets to Florida Republican U.S. Representatives Mario Díaz-Balart, Maria Elvira Salazar, Carlos Giménez, Kat Cammack, Anna Paulina Luna, Laurel Lee, Cory Mills and Brian Mast.
DeSantis replied that he would relish Jeffries bringing his brand of liberal politics to Florida.
“Please, be my guest. I will pay for you to come down to Florida and campaign. I’ll put you up in the Florida governor’s mansion,” DeSantis said during a bill signing event Wednesday in Jacksonville. “There’s nothing that could be better for Republicans in Florida than to see Hakeem Jeffries everywhere around this state.”

STORY OF THE WEEK: Florida legislators announced they are even closer to moving forward with talks on the 2026-27 fiscal year budget.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “The peak fire season is not here yet. That’s usually toward the end of May. We have not received lightning so far. And when that comes, and it’s coming, we’re going to be as busy as we probably have been in decades. But we’re well prepared.” – Florida Forest Service Director Rick Dolan on the current dry conditions across the state.

TALLAHASSEE — Lawmakers remain in a holding pattern, with no concrete progress made on the budget.
Legislative leaders issued memos to members saying they won’t need to return to the Capitol next week because there’s no agreement on allocations – top line numbers for the spending plan.

But Gov. Ron DeSantis did receive and sign a slate of bills and the January jobs report showed the unemployment rate ticking up again to 4.5 percent – enough to cause concern even among some Republicans

MID-APRIL

When talks between the House and Senate to allocate funding for different parts of the fiscal year 2026-2027 spending plan crashed in early March, requiring extra time for budget talks for the second consecutive year, a general “mid-April” timeline was given for the return.
That led many to anticipate lawmakers to take up the process on April 13, with the work overlapping the five-day special session Gov. Ron DeSantis called for congressional redistricting that begins April 20.
On Wednesday, House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, and Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, sent separate memos telling lawmakers no deal on allocations has been reached and they aren’t ready to begin formal negotiations.
“While I believe we are making great progress, it will not be necessary for you to return to Tallahassee prior to the special session called by Governor DeSantis,” Albritton wrote. “We will share a schedule for that special session as soon as possible.”
Perez called “external speculation” of a special session next week “not accurate.”
The special session for congressional redistricting is still moving forward, although the motivating reason DeSantis gave for calling the session hasn’t come to pass.
DeSantis cited a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision on a Louisiana redistricting case as the primary reason to redraw Florida’s congressional districts.
He believes the ruling, when it comes, will strike down part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that allows districts to be drawn on racial grounds to address historic discrimination. That would require, DeSantis claims, the state to redraw some districts in South Florida.
Despite the lack of a ruling, though, DeSantis doesn’t think lawmakers need to wait.
“We know how that Supreme Court case is going to come out at this point. I don’t think there’s much of a dispute about that,” DeSantis said while at a bill signing event at the University of South Florida. “And I think Justice Alito is writing the opinion. So, us looking at our map, understanding the issues in that case, and fixing it, I think that’s appropriate whether the decision comes before we do it or after.”

STATE LABELING

DeSantis started the week with a bill signing, this one to designate groups as “domestic terrorist organizations.”
The measure was crafted to back up an executive order he issued in December placing that label on two Islamic groups.
The law, effective July 1, bars courts from enforcing any provision of a religious or foreign law. It was crafted to prevent the use of the Islamic code known as Sharia law.
Another provision allows the state’s Chief of Domestic Security – currently Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass – to designate a domestic or foreign terrorist organization. The Governor and the Cabinet would approve the designation.
“The legislation we’ll sign today is the strongest action Florida has ever taken to protect its people from this influence,” DeSantis said during a bill signing event at the University of South Florida’s Gibbons Alumni Center in Tampa. “And obviously, it spans finance, it spans political, it spans culture.”
The bill (HB 1471) was filed in support of DeSantis’ executive order classifying the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, and the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations.
In March, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a preliminary injunction against the order, writing that it violated CAIR’s rights by targeting and threatening those providing the organization with material support.
Criticizing the legislation DeSantis’ office helped author as advancing “a political agenda,” CAIR-Florida Executive Director Hiba Rahim said in a statement on Monday the law jeopardizes student speech, freedom of religion and due process.
“This is not just about CAIR. This expanded and deeply flawed framework can attack any organization that dares to dissent,” Rahim said in a statement. “As Floridians, together, we’ll watch how this unprecedented law is enforced, and whether it is used or abused.”

JOBS

Florida’s jobless rate for January was posted Wednesday at 4.5 percent, 0.2 percentage points higher than in December.
The jobless mark is also 1 percentage point higher than a year earlier, with the Department of Commerce figures showing the state lost 20,600 jobs in that time.
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, who while governor maintained “jobs, jobs, jobs” as his mantra, expressed concerns over the state’s trajectory.
“Florida shouldn’t be losing so many jobs, and we shouldn’t be surpassing the national unemployment average for the first time in years. Creating more jobs needs to be PRIORITY #1!” Scott posted on X.
The January figure represents 499,000 people qualified as out of work from a labor force of 11.12 million.
The number of people out of work is 20,000 higher than revised December figures. Meanwhile, the workforce declined by 7,000 in the same month-to-month comparison.
The monthly report was released a day after Gov. DeSantis joined business leaders and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at the Perez Art Museum in Miami to promote the Texas Stock Exchange.
In brief remarks, DeSantis talked of the “very healthy competition” Florida has for business with states including Texas, Tennessee and Georgia.
“That’s been really, really good, not just for the people of our individual states, but for the region as a whole,” DeSantis said. “We’ve shown a great framework for how you can succeed and really grow your economies and give people more opportunities.”

STORY OF THE WEEK: DeSantis signed a bill allowing the state to designate groups as “domestic terrorist” organizations.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Union and Glades (counties) are the canary in the coal mine.” – Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island, after the state stepped in to help manage the distressed finances of two rural school districts.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said the effort to offer voters property tax relief will require time beyond the regular session.
With the regular 60-day session set to end March 13, DeSantis claimed that despite the House approving property tax relief legislation (HJR 203), the Senate agrees with him that the creation of a November ballot item on homestead property taxes will be addressed after that date.

“I applaud the House for getting into this fight. I think they’ve got a lot of folks that brought forth a lot of good ideas,” DeSantis said while at Anderson Circle, Plaza de la Constitución, in St. Augustine on Wednesday. “But what I’ve also said, and I said from the beginning, I didn’t see this necessarily happening in this regular session. And I think the Senate agrees with that. We’re going to be coming back. There’s going to be opportunities to be doing it. I think you have to do it right.”
The remarks were a marked departure from his characterization of the House property tax proposals as “milquetoast” when they were first unveiled in October.
DeSantis hasn’t put forward his own proposal, but on February 19 the Republican-controlled House voted 80-30 along party lines on its bill to put a measure on the 2026 general election ballot that would eliminate all non-school taxes for properties with a homestead exemption.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ed Hooper last week said the Senate was working on its own proposal, which wouldn’t be as “generous” as the House effort. Hooper said the Senate is concerned about assisting small, fiscally constrained counties that would be hardest hit by reducing the revenue from homesteaded properties. But Hooper wouldn’t put a timeline on releasing the proposal.

Senate President Ben Albritton added last Thursday that, “I have said, by the way, in concert with the Governor, is that getting it right is more important than doing it quickly or having that particular timeline set in stone.”
Wakulla and other small counties that rely heavily on property taxes have expressed concern about the possible fiscal impact of property tax reform being eyed by the legislature to put before voters in November.
DeSantis vowed to hold harmless the fiscally constrained counties in the state, including Wakulla.
In January, DeSantis called a special legislative session for the week of April 20 to redraw congressional districts as Republicans seek to maintain control of the U.S. House in this year’s elections.

Most lawmakers got a somewhat unexpected weekend off as the House and Senate didn’t begin the budget conference phase at the conclusion of the regular session’s seventh of nine scheduled weeks.
With talks growing that extra time will be needed on a property tax cut amendment to put before voters, a top priority of Gov. Ron DeSantis, the chambers did release tax cut packages this week. And while the size of the cuts isn’t as large as in prior years, there are still significant differences between the chambers that could complicate budget talks.

‘SEE YOU NEXT WEEK’

As for negotiations over the $113.6 billion fiscal year spending plan from the House (HB 5001) and the Senate’s $115 billion proposal (SB 2500), those remain on hold.
House Budget Committee Chairman Lawrence McClure advised the chamber late Wednesday budget conference talks with the Senate will not get underway this weekend.
“It looks like we are not going to conference this weekend. I intend to go home. And I’ll see you next week,” McClure, R-Dover, told the chamber.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ed Hooper, R-Trinity, made similar comments at the start of the Senate floor session on Thursday.
Lawmakers are slated to end the 60-day session on March 13, which to finish on time with a completed budget would require a targeted deadline of March 10 to craft a single spending plan. That deadline involves a law requiring a 72-hour “cooling off” period once the final budget is made public before lawmakers can vote on it.

GUNS, FISHING, BEER

Last year lawmakers passed a tax cut bill worth an estimated $1.6 billion in savings for taxpayers. That included making the back-to-school “tax holiday” an annual August-long event in state law and permanently lifting sales taxes on many of the individual items tied to the hurricane season — such as batteries, portable generators and tarps.
This year’s version looks like it will be more modest.
The Senate’s tax cut plan (SB 7046) has $34.1 million in savings. It seeks to revive the hunting, fishing and camping “tax holiday” to run from mid-September to the end of the year. The holiday lifts sales taxes on select ammunition, firearms, bows, crossbows, and related accessories.
The proposal also permanently lifts sales taxes on liquified petroleum gas tanks with a capacity of 20 pounds or less.
The House goes deeper with its $152.6 million plan (HB 7031).
The package calls for moving the back-to-school holiday dates to July 20 through August 20 and running the hunting, fishing and campaign holiday from Sept. 1 through the end of the year. The plan also cuts the tax rate on American-made beer for the fiscal year. A separate one-year exemption is sought on firearm accessories, including holsters, magazines, muzzle devices, sights and suppressors.

SPEED MEETINGS

Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Cabinet rushed through the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday and an Executive Clemency Board meeting on Wednesday.
“Forty-eight minutes. Let’s see someone else beat that,” DeSantis said after the Clemency panel granted 29 pardons and denied 14 others.
In the even shorter Cabinet meeting, clocking in just under 30 minutes, the panel approved $19.8 million for three conservation easements, allocated about $40 million in grants to local law enforcement for immigration enforcement, and agreed to designate 22 acres at Hillsborough College into talks regarding a stadium and mixed-use development with the Tampa Bay Rays.
“What today is just a bunch of parking lots will be completely renovated to a live-work-entertain district that is going to have significant economic benefits to the state,” said Attorney General James Uthmeier. “I also think there’s a lot of great opportunities for the students to do internships, apprenticeships; walk right across the street and have job opportunities right there.”

DATA CENTERS

New restrictions on large-scale data centers, part of Gov. DeSantis’ push to tamp down on the maturing field of artificial intelligence, passed in the Senate on Thursday.
The measure (SB 484) addresses key issues such as electricity and water use needed to maintain the data centers and generally requires public notice of when plans are filed for a data center in the region.
The House has started to advance a similar data center measure (HB 1007), but has yet to show movement on DeSantis’ call for an “Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights.” House leadership prefers to defer more universal regulations over the field to the federal government.
Asked about the future of the “AI Bill of Rights” effort (SB 482), which was postponed before a vote on the Senate floor this week, Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, replied that the “Senate believes in the policy.”

FSU PRESIDENT

Florida State University President Richard McCullough was given a three-year contract extension from the Board of Trustees on Thursday.
“I look forward to the next chapter, and I appreciate the support,” McCullough told the board.
McCullough was vice provost for research at Harvard University before becoming FSU’s 16th president in 2021. His most recent contract from August 2025 increased his base salary to $1.25 million a year.
The extension needs to be approved by the state university system’s Board of Governors.

STORY OF THE WEEK: Budget talks between the House and Senate haven’t formally started, but legislative leaders said they’re exchanging offers on top-line numbers.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “I hope you won’t consider this bad news. For planning purposes, at the conclusion of today’s sitting, you’re all free to go home for the weekend. There will be no conference this weekend.” — Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ed Hooper, R-Trinity, on Thursday.

TALLAHASSEE – Hours after the Senate announced Thursday it would delay the release of its budget to align its timing with the House, the House unveiled its spending plan.
The $113.58 billion House proposal would be about $1 billion less than the current budget.

The Senate quickly altered its plans, announcing appropriations committees would hold public hearings on Wednesday on its own $115 billion budget, along with implementing and conforming bills would be before the full chamber on Friday.
“Through this budget, we are holding the line on spending, living within our means and striking the right balance between spending and saving,” Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, said in a released statement.
The House will start subcommittee budget hearings on Monday.
Among the House’s accompanying bills are measures to keep alive the Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund the governor has used for national disaster and immigration enforcement.

EMERGENCY FUND

The Senate on Wednesday reauthorized the emergency fund (HB 7040) to remain active beyond Monday. But the House had remained quiet on the matter until releasing the budget implementation bill (PCB TED 26-02) that goes before the Transportation & Economic Development Budget Subcommittee on Monday.
Money in the fund can’t be used to buy aircraft, boats or motor vehicles, according to the House proposal. Also, federal reimbursements of state emergency expenditures have to go into the General Revenue Fund rather than into the emergency fund.
And the executive office must provide quarterly reports to House and Senate leaders on the projected year-end chase balance of the fund, an accounting of all inventory and assets purchased by event and agency, and a “written attestation, under penalty of perjury, from the director of the Division of Emergency Management that the information in the report is true, accurate, and complete.”
During the Senate debate, Democrats heavily criticized DeSantis’ administration for spending $4.77 billion through the fund, with much of the money going toward emergencies declared by DeSantis that weren’t related to hurricanes or other natural disasters.
About $573 million has been spent on immigration enforcement, including the detention center in South Florida known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” State officials have said the federal government has pledged to reimburse Florida for all the immigration enforcement expenses, but Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie has said the Department of Justice is holding up the payment.

HOUSE FLOOR

The House approved several bills Wednesday that have uncertain futures in the Senate.
An 84-28 mostly party-line vote in the Republican-controlled chamber supported a measure that puts a definition of “materials harmful to minors” into a controversial 2023 Florida law that led to books being removed from school libraries (HB 1119).
Apopka Republican Rep. Doug Bankson, the bill’s sponsor, said nothing in his proposal “addresses banning classical literature or sexual orientation, gender identity, political views, religious issues, vulgarity, or bad language, violence or gore.”
The identical Senate version (SB 1692) has yet to appear before a committee.
A 92-14 vote passed a ban on state agencies using the term “West Bank” to refer to the section of land controlled by Israel. It also requires new public school and charter school instructional materials and library media center collections to refer to the land by its historical name of “Judea and Samaria.”
Orlando Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani cautioned against the political implications of altering the wording used in international law and United Nations diplomacy that works towards peace in the region.
A similar version in the Senate (SB 1106) has cleared two committees and will next go before the Rules Committee.
And in a 112-1 vote — Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, was the sole opposing vote — the American flamingo was backed as Florida’s state bird (HB 11).
The seemingly annual effort to replace the mockingbird has two committee stops ahead in the Senate (SB 150).

STORY OF THE WEEK: After mixed messages about the status of their corresponding budget proposals, the House and Senate on Thursday and Friday released proposed spending plans.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “If there’s one thing that all of us in this chamber can agree on is, it’s how annoying fraudulent robocalls are.” – Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat, on Wednesday as a bill (SB 1516) advanced to make it harder for fraudulent telemarketers to mask their true identities.

TALLAHASSEE — A chill outside the Capitol didn’t improve the at-times frosty relationships between the state’s three top Republican politicos in the kickoff to the 2026 legislative session.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, however, received a warm response from conservatives in the legal community as he cemented his imprint on the Florida Supreme Court with the appointment of Justice Adam Tanenbaum.
The governor also notched a win from the state court this week in a decision that scrapped the American Bar Association as the sole accreditor for Florida law schools.

CHILLING OUT

House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, told reporters everything isn’t hunky-dory with Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, as the 60-day regular session opened on Tuesday.
Asked by reporters about his relationship with his Senate counterpart, Perez referred to a 2025 state budget and tax-cut package agreed to by the two legislative leaders. Perez said Albritton reneged on the deal after DeSantis said it was “DOA.”
The Legislature needs to be “the independent branch of government,” Perez said Tuesday.
“And if he (Albritton) were to agree with me on that, we will be able to talk,” he added.
Albritton demurred when asked about Perez, saying he won’t bad mouth his colleague.
“Not in a million years. I’m not going to do it,” Albritton said.
In separate addresses to their chambers Tuesday, the pair pointed to the need for lawmakers to make life more affordable for Floridians. The House and Senate began passing bills later in the week.
The Senate on Wednesday backed a $150 million “rural renaissance” plan (SB 250), a priority of Albritton’s which is aimed at boosting such things as education, transportation and economic development in rural areas. A similar effort last year with more health-care provisions failed to gain traction in the House.
Among bills advanced Thursday in the House were proposals to lower the minimum age to purchase rifles and other long guns from 21 to 18 (HB 133) and to require all private employers to use the federal E-Verify system to check the immigration status of new workers (HB 197). Similar proposals flailed in the Senate in 2025.
The House also approved an effort (HB 6003) that would repeal a 1990 law that prevents people ages 25 and older from seeking what are known as “non-economic” damages in medical-malpractice cases involving deaths of their parents. DeSantis vetoed a similar effort last year.
Meanwhile, DeSantis used his final State of the State address to tout accomplishments over the past seven years in areas such as cutting taxes, expanding school choice, increasing teacher pay, remaking the higher-education system and pouring money into Everglades restoration.
“We lead with clarity, conviction and courage,” DeSantis told lawmakers who filled the House chamber. He also touched on his priorities for the session, though he went into little detail and did not announce major new initiatives.
Senate Minority Leader Lori Berman, D-Boca Raton, described DeSantis’ address as a “campaign stump speech” and said he didn’t address “the true issues that affect Floridians about affordability.”

HEADING HOME

DeSantis on Wednesday promoted Adam Tanenbaum from a judge at the Tallahassee-based 1st District Court of Appeal to a justice on the Florida Supreme Court.
Tanenbaum has the “courage” and “warrior spirit” to make tough decisions “regardless of the blowback,” the governor said during an announcement at Seminole High School, where Tanenbaum graduated at the top of his class in 1989.
During his two terms as governor, DeSantis has chosen six of the seven current justices — and two other justices who were later tapped by President Donald Trump to serve on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Tanenbaum’s appointment cements DeSantis’ legacy of reshaping the court with conservative justices who have reversed years of precedent established by more left-leaning justices on issues such as the death penalty and abortion rights.
Laying out his textualist judicial philosophy on Wednesday, Tanenbaum said he subscribes to “the fixation thesis and the constraint principle.” Tanenbaum also defended the court’s duty to revisit earlier decisions.
“Our goal as judges is always to find the correct original meaning of the law. To instead follow and replicate erroneous interpretations of the past is essentially to make the law, usurping in the process the Legislature’s and the people’s authority. If we as judges profess to apply the law and not make it, then the imperative at all times is to recognize what the law is,” Tanenbaum said.
Tanenbaum replaces former Justice Charles Canady, an appointee of former Gov. Charlie Crist who left to direct the University of Florida’s Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education.

NEW GATEKEEPERS

Amid mounting pressure from conservatives on the national lawyer group, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the state should “end its reliance on the American Bar Association” as the sole accreditor of law schools.
The court “is persuaded that it is not in Floridians’ best interest for the ABA to be the sole gatekeeper deciding which law schools’ graduates are eligible to sit for the state’s General Bar Examination and become licensed attorneys in Florida,” Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz and Justices John Couriel, Jamie Grosshans, Renee Francis, and Meredith Sasso said in Thursday’s ruling. Justice Jorge Labarga issued a dissenting opinion.
The decision follows a report issued in October by a workgroup appointed by Muñiz.
In most cases, Florida requires people to graduate from accredited law schools to be eligible to take the bar exam to practice law. The American Bar Association has served as the state’s lone accreditor for more than three decades.
The ABA’s accreditation process has come under fire from conservative officials including DeSantis, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who accuse the organization of trying to require diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at law schools — a political hot-button issue.
“The (highly partisan) ABA should not be a gatekeeper for legal education or the legal profession,” DeSantis said in a post on the social-media platform X after Thursday’s ruling.
Jenn Rosato Perea, managing director of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, said in an email the court’s order “reinforces the authority that it has always had” over licensure of law-school graduates and the law schools it recognizes as accredited.

STORY OF THE WEEK: Florida lawmakers kicked off the 60-day 2026 legislative session on Tuesday, with House and Senate leaders making affordability a top priority.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Whether the governor wants to be petulant and not shake the hand of a partner, that’s on him. It’s not going to change our direction.” — House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, on not receiving a handshake from Gov. Ron DeSantis on the House rostrum before the State of the State address.