The Florida Session is Going Into Overtime: What Bills Will Lawmakers Debate?

TALLAHASSEE—After a grueling 60-day legislative session marked by tension, infighting, and a rare rebellion from the GOP, lawmakers are headed to overtime.

Why? Because they couldn't agree on the one bill required by the state constitution: a budget for the upcoming year.

So when Senate President Ben Albritton and House Speaker Danny Perez announced Friday night that they would be extending the session from May 12 through June 6 to work on the budget, it came as no surprise.

But the budget isn’t the only thing lawmakers will be debating.

What Bills Will be Considered?

SB 110: Albritton’s priority legislation, his “Rural Renaissance,” will be taken up during the session’s extension. Though the measure, SB 110, passed the Senate in March, the House diced up the sweeping bill and mixed its components into other bills.

The bill, in its original form, would have revitalized Florida’s rural communities through a new Office of Rural Prosperity and two new grant programs specifically targeting rural areas. It asks for $200 million from the state.

Bill sponsor Sen. Corey Simon, a Republican, eviscerated the lower chamber’s slice-and-dice maneuver, lambasting it as a “bastardization” of his measure. The House passed a series of these quasi-Rural Renaissance bills, though the Senate only approved one.

HB 5203: The extension will also address a controversial House bill targeting offices on the 21st floor of the Capitol, a plan borne from a tug-of-war between the Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration.

The offices, leased by the state House, had been used by Marco Rubio—now the Secretary of State—when he was a U.S. Senator. But when DeSantis appointed former Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody to fill Rubio’s seat, DeSantis says the House didn’t offer her the offices.

Around the same time, the Department of Management Services canceled the House’s lease. HB 5203 would make the House, Senate, governor, and Cabinet permanent tenants of the Capitol. Under the bill, the House Speaker or Senate President would have to approve any plans to alter the Legislature’s leases or remodel parts of the Capitol.

HB 7031: This is Speaker Perez’s sales tax cut plan to permanently reduce the sales tax from 6% to 5.25%.

It’s drawn the ire of DeSantis, who wanted lawmakers to figure out a plan to eliminate property taxes. He claimed Perez’s suggestion would mostly cater to tourists, not to Florida residents.

HB 7033: This bill would also permanently reduce the sales tax to 5.25%. According to the Florida Policy Institute, it also includes a 0.75 percentage point reduction to the sales tax businesses pay on commercial leases, plus several other sales tax cuts involving electricity, some vending machines, and new mobile homes.

The twelve other bills are SB 2500, SB 2502, SB 2504, SB 2506, SB 2508, SB 2510, SB 2514, SB 7022, SB 7030, HB 5013, HB 5015, and HB 5501. They all tackle various budget proposals, which Perez has said will have $2.8 billion in tax cuts.