Florida lawmakers pass $115B budget after special session, 99-6 House vote

Florida Legislature passes $114.5B budget

The Florida Legislature approved a multibillion-dollar state budget Friday afternoon, following a special session to agree on budget terms. FOX 13's Kylie Jones reports.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The Florida Legislature approved a multibillion-dollar state budget Friday afternoon, following a special session to agree on budget terms.

This is the second year in a row that a special session has been called, after lawmakers couldn't come to an agreement.

Florida spending package

The backstory:

The Republican-led House and Senate faced a looming deadline before finalizing the nearly $115 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

The spending plan passed the House chamber with an overwhelming 99-6 vote.

Supporters emphasized that the spending package includes major funding for education, protecting the state's environment and pay raises for some state workers.

Lawmakers say this includes hundreds of millions of dollars for water quality improvements, transportation and infrastructure networks.

On the House floor, lawmakers boasted that a multibillion-dollar deficit was corrected.

"We were going to be upside down $2 billion this year," Rep. Lawrence McClure said. "We have fixed that. We are to the plus side $3 billion. A net $5 billion change."

The budget unanimously passed in the Senate on Friday.

Concerns over affordability, social programs

While the spending blueprint saw wide bipartisan support, some lawmakers voiced sharp concerns, largely centered around affordability.

"Floridians are in a real crunch when it comes to rising costs," Rep. Fentrice Driskell said. "That, to me, is why this budget is inadequate. It seems to me that we should have focused more on delivering affordability for Floridians."

Other dissenting lawmakers shared similar frustrations, arguing that the budget doesn't do enough to improve the affordability of housing, education and healthcare.

"We did not see VPK extended to a full day," Rep. Angie Nixon said. "We did not see an expansion to three-year-olds. We did not see universal early childhood education. We also did not see an expansion of Medicaid."

Government executive actions

What's next:

The finalized budget now heads to the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has approximately one month to make vetoes and sign the bill into law.

At an unrelated press conference in Davie on Friday, DeSantis boasted about the state's consecutive years of reduced spending.

"I'm going to sign the budget here in the next month, after I do vetoes, that will spend less the next fiscal year than we're currently spending this fiscal year," DeSantis said. "This fiscal year's budget spends less than we did the previous fiscal year, and that previous fiscal year spends less than the year before that."

Once signed, the newly approved state budget is scheduled to officially take effect on July 1.