House in Special Session E

>> The House will come to order. Members and visitors in the gallery, please rise for the prayer. Today, the prayer will be offered by Representative Tramont. Representative Tramont, please approach the wall. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First time I ever led in prayer here. I was visiting here on a pastor of the day, and I longed for the day to have my own name on one of these desks, and what a privilege it is to be able to serve here. Let's go to the Lord in prayer with that mindset. Father God, we thank you so much for this opportunity. This blessing, this privilege to serve. May today and Monday, frankly, be a reminder that service isn't necessarily about convenience. You called us to deny ourselves. That means to deny our schedule, deny our wants in the service of others and honoring you. So, Laura, we do that today, and we do this with an attitude of immense gratitude for this opportunity and this blessing to be in this chamber. It's in Jesus name, I pray. Amen. >> Speaker Pro Tem Duggan, you are recognized to identify those individuals whom we will honor today with a moment of silence. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, a few months ago, we lost former state Senator Donel C. Childers, who represented Palm Beach County for over 15 years. While in the Senate, he served across many different jurisdictions and chaired multiple committees from commerce to education. He worked on hundreds of bills and was instrumental in legislation that has left a lasting impact on our state. On behalf of Representative Gerwig, I ask that you join me in a moment of silence for Senator Don Childers. >> Members, please join me in a moment of silence. Thank you. The clerk will unlock the machine and the members will record their presence. Have all members recorded their presence? The clerk will lock the machine and announce the presence of a quorum. >> One hundred and one members voting. A quorum is present, Mr. Speaker. >> Members and visitors in the gallery, please rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag. The pledge of allegiance will be led by Representative Cobb from her desk. >> [PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE]. >> We are honored today to be joined by our law enforcement officer of the day, Officer Antonio Richardson with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office at the invitation of Representative Daniels. Officer Richardson, thank you for your service and welcome to the Florida House. [APPLAUSE] Are there corrections to the journal? Hearing none, show the journal approved. Are there messages from the Senate? >> None on the desk, Mr. Speaker. >> Are there reports of standing committees and subcommittees? >> None on the desk, Mr. Speaker. >> Are there motions relating to committee and sucommittee references? >> None on the desk, Mr. Speaker. >> Are there bills or joint resolutions on third reading? >> None on the desk, Mr. Speaker. >> Are there bills on the special order calendar? >> None on the desk, Mr. Speaker. >> Members, as an update for today, we will be taking up 11 budget conference committee reports. Questions and debate will be available on the reports. Floor amendments are not permitted on conference committee reports pursuant to Rule 7.22(c). After questions and debate, we will take up a motion on each report to accept the report in its entirety. That motion will be followed by a final vote on the bill as amended by the Conference Committee Report. Pursuant to the state Constitution and Joint Rule 2.1, the 72-hour review period began to run upon completion of the furnishing of the required copies to each member of the legislature, each member of the cabinet, the governor, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The House clerk attested to the required copies and were furnished in accordance with the Constitution and the joint rule on Tuesday, May 26, 2026 at 11:41 AM. Additionally, all conforming bills recommended by conference committees have been published, subject to the 24-hour review period and pursuant to Joint Rule 2.1. As a reminder, if you were on a conference committee, please go to the bubble in the back and sign the conference report letters today. Read the Conference Committee Report on HB 7031-E. >> By Representative Duggan, House Bill 7031-E, a bill to be entitled An Act Relating to Taxation. The Honorable Daniel Perez, Speaker of House of Representatives, the Honorable Ben Albritton, President of the Senate. Dear Mr. Speaker and Mr. President, your Conference Committee on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on HB 7031-E, same being an act relating to taxation. Having met and after full and free conference, do recommend to their respective Houses as follows. One, that the Senate receive from its Amendment 629710. Two, that the Senate and House of Representatives adopt the Conference Committee amendment attached hereto, and by reference made a part of this report. Reading the report, Mr. Speaker. >> Representative Duggan, you're recognized to explain the conference report. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Morning, members. The Conference Committee amendment for HB 7031-E provides for a number of tax reductions and other tax related modifications designed to directly benefit Florida taxpayers. The amendment retains a number of provisions that were contained in the tax package we passed on March 5 with 105 yays and two nays. But it also contains several differences which I will explain. First, the provisions that are retained from the bill passed in March include the following; a timing shift for the back to school sales tax holiday, language clarifying the sales tax exemption for small propane gas tanks, a reduction of card room taxes from 8% to 5%, a reduction on slot machine revenue taxes from 35% to 34%, the elimination of a licensing fee for slot machine license holders, the exemption for children's services counsels from sharing property tax revenues with CRAs, the provisions better aligning the portability of accrued Save Our Homes benefits with the state constitution, the provision requiring online listing platforms to include an estimate of property taxes for residential listings, the provision allowing certain diplomatic intelligence consular and foreign service agents to keep their homestead exemption if they rent their homes while they are deployed or stationed outside of Florida, the provision clarifying the necessary vote threshold for municipal services taxing unit or dependent special district, if that local government did not levy a milage in the prior year, the provision allowing property appraisers to notify taxpayers of issues with an exemption application during a specified period of time, the clarification of the order in which insurance premium tax credits should be taken, finally, the expansion of the program that allows consumers to elect to contribute a portion of their sales tax on motor vehicles to eligible non-profit scholarship funding organizations to include the purchase of certain heavy trucks. The following are provisions that were in the bill we passed in March that were retained with modifications. The sales tax exemption on impact resistant windows and doors is increased from two years to three years. The four month hunting, fishing and camping holiday is amended to include the firearm accessories that the House originally proposed exempting for one year. The property tax assessment benefits for mobile home parks are retained with additional administrative guidance for property appraisers. The extension of the childcare tax credit is reduced from an additional three years to an additional one year. The extension of a documentary stamp tax exemption for certain promissory notes used by alarm system contractors is reduced from an additional three years to an additional one year. The provisions modifying allocations of the Strong Family Tax Credit Program were adjusted. Under the new language, a single taxpayer may donate up to $2 million per year, and a charity may be allocated no more than $10 million of the annual credit cap amount. The cap is also increased from $40 million to $53.1 million for fiscal years '26-27 and '27-28. Finally, there are several new issues in the amendment that were not in the original bill. A procedure for state universities and state colleges to request refunds of sales tax paid on certain public works construction projects. A three-year sales tax exemption on the purchase of admissions to certain professional tennis tournaments. A provision allowing taxpayers to appeal a decision about the timely filing of a tangible personal property tax return to the Value Adjustment Board. Provisions allowing property used for agricultural composting or for the packaging of certain agricultural products to be assessed as agricultural property for property tax purposes. Updates to the list of named military operations for the deployed service member property tax exemption, and a provision that allows certain deployments in '23, '24, and '25 to qualify for the exemption via refund. A requirement for property appraisers and tax collectors to post supporting documentation related to their annual budget on their websites. A requirement that the commission due to a tax collector related to voted school millages must be paid by the county's Board of County Commissioners unless the tax collector chooses to waive that commission. An administrative clarification that when a school board votes to put a school millage on a ballot for referendum, the Board of County Commissioners must place the issue on the ballot for the next general election held more than 90 days after the adoption of the school board's resolution. A provision clarifying the timing of when interest begins to accrue on refund applications filed with the Department of Revenue and provisions that redirect general revenue funds to state trust funds for use on specified transportation and environmental programs. The amendment contains a total reduction of $272.2 million in state and local tax revenues. Members, that is the amendment. >> Other questions. Representative Eskamani, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good morning, Chair Duggan. It's great to see you. Walk me through the decision to reduce the child tax credit for three years to one year. What was that decision made? >> Representative Duggan, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a conference product, and we were running out of time and certain decisions were made somewhat in consultation with our partners across the rotunda. >> Representative Eskamani. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You mentioned the consulate and delegate changes allowing line 345-349 for a diplomat, intelligence officer, so forth to, I guess retain their property tax status. Who is this specifically for? Is this for Secretary of State Rubio? Mike Huckabee? I'm just curious. What's the purpose of this language? >> Representative Duggan. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's not for any particular person, but obviously this administration has seen fit to staff up, certainly their ambassadorial and other diplomatic ranks with many Florida citizens, Florida residents. And so if they have homestead and they rent their property while they're deployed abroad on public service, they will keep that homestead exemption. >> Additional questions. Representative Eskamani. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker. Walk me through what delivers broad-based support to everyday consumers. Is there anything about housing affordability? I know there's the sales tax holidays, can you walk us through some of the more consumer centric changes. >> Representative Duggan. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So first of all, we made the back to school sales tax holiday permanent last year. So that continues to be a benefit and will continue going forward. We modified the timing of that a little bit based on feedback from constituents who wanted it to start a little bit earlier so they could be ready when school starts. They've already bought that. Another provision is the mobile home park provision. So what that provides for is if somebody owns their mobile home, but they lease their pad within a mobile home park and under their lease, the property taxes that the park owner, the lot owner of the real estate are passed through in their lease to them, if at least 75% of the lots in the park meet that criteria, in other words, owned by somebody else lease space, then they will qualify for the 3% Save Our Homes annual assessment limitation. So that functionally gives them parity with single family homeowners. Then, of course, as you acknowledged, we have a sales tax holiday, hunting, fishing, camping, outdoor activities. >> Additional questions. Representative Nixon. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Question, Rep Duggan. I see that you made a change. The requirement for the county referendum asking voters to increase property taxes for local public schools to be held during the general election, how does that change from what it is currently? >> Representative Duggan. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What it clarifies is that the Board of County Commissioners must as a ministerial duty, put that on the ballot. It's not discretionary. If the school board asks for it, the County Commission must put it on the ballot. That's the change that we're making. >> Representative Nixon. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So right now they have the discretion to just go ahead and make it happen anyway? I just wanted clarification on it. Thank you. >> Representative Duggan. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Right now, I would say there's some ambiguity. Some local county commissioners are treating the request by the school board for this referendum as discretionary as to whether they have to put it on an agenda, when they have to put it on an agenda, do they have to vote yes on it? What we're trying to clarify is you must treat it as something you must automatically do. Yes, it requires a legislation to put it on the ballot. But if the school board asks for it, you must do it. Is the change we're trying to effect. >> Representative Nixon. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Why are we making that change and requiring them to put it on the ballot? If they see there's a huge gap, why are we making that change? >> Representative Duggan. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are making it because members of this body came to the Ways and Means Committee to say, back home, some of their local government officials are treating that as a discretionary and we want to make it mandatory. >> Additional questions. Representative Hart-Lowman, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just had one question as it relates to the firearms, including the magazines and the ammunition, pistol grips and stocks and suppressors and silencers. Is there some particular reason why you decided to combine it with the hunting and fishing camping? Is there some particular reason why we move that together? >> Representative Hart-Lowman, I couldn't hear your question. Would you care to repeat it, please? >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. >> Members, if you could please hold it down. Representative Hart-Lowman, you're recognized. >> I was just asking about the firearms accessory, including magazines and ammunition, pistol grip stock, braces, suppressive, silencers. Was there some particular reason why you decided to combine that with the camping and hunting and fishing? Was there some particular reason for that? >> Representative Duggan, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We had, in last year's sales tax holiday, all of the firearm accessories that are on the list with the exception of suppressors. Those were added. Suppressors were an item added to the list of firearm accessories for this year's sales tax holiday. But we've already done that. This wasn't new this year, we added firearm accessories to the holiday. We did that last session. And I think the broader philosophical reason is we had a constitutional ammendment on the ballot to enshrine the right to hunt and fish in our state constitution. It passed with north of 70% voter approval, and so we want to recognize that that's an activity that our citizens like to engage in, and it's important to them. And so we're giving them the four-month sales tax holiday. >> Additional questions. Representative Nixon, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Are we doing anything about gas? I don't think I heard. I can't tell. >> Representative Duggan. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, there's nothing in there about a gas tax holiday. >> Members, additional questions. Representative Eskamani, you're recognized for a question. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker. Just to make sure. I don't see anything about combined reporting. Is that also accurate? >> Representative Duggan. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You're correct. >> Members, additional questions. Representative Eskamani? >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What's the merit on the slots and just like the gaming related tax breaks? Why are we doing that? >> Representative Duggan. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, elements of this were in last session's tax package as well. We reduced carb room taxes 2% last session. We're continuing that glide path this session. And the rationale is, these are good. The people that are employed by these facilities have a good paying job in large numbers, and they're large employers in their communities. And we want to help facilitate their continued employment at a very high quality of life wage. >> Representative Nixon. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Rep Duggan, I think a lot of our constituents have been calling us brown, yes. Was there any consideration around, like a break on gas, like some sales tax relief around gas? >> Representative Duggan. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes. I thought that was a good idea. The challenge is we have no way to ensure that the vendor at the pump passes the savings on to the consumer. They could just pocket the difference. We didn't have a good tool to ensure that if we released them from the obligation to collect and remit the tax, that they would reduce the price at the pump. >> Representing Nixon, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regards to all of these tax breaks you're giving to like tennis sales, the guns, how can we guarantee that those folks are actually giving tax breaks and aren't profiting money? >> Representative, Duggan. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. >> The tennis thing was a result of the Senate. This is a conference product, that's something that the Senate wanted, not us. Your point is a valid one, except that those retailers, particularly the hunting, fishing camping and the back to school, those retailers are used to accommodating that every season into their pricing. And more importantly, their customers are used to looking for it. And so I think it would be harder for them to not pass the savings along. But at a gas station, the price fluctuates by the hour, even under normal market conditions. There's no way for a consumer to look at the price at the pump and know whether or not does that price reflect changing market conditions day by day, hour by hour? Or is there some tax benefit that I'm not getting reflected in that price? >> Members, time and questions has expired. We're now going into structured debate on House Bill 7031E. Debate will be limited to 10 minutes per side and 10 minute increments. Total debate time not to exceed 20 minutes. Representative Gottlieb, you're recognized to begin a debate, and the clerk will start the debate clock. >> I'm here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, yielding the floor to Representative Nixon. >> Representive Nixon, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This doesn't make any sense to me and I'm sure it doesn't make a lot of sense to the taxpayers. We are offering up a ton of tax relief to people who go and purchase tennis tickets, to people who go and purchase guns. And for the regular average everyday working, hardworking person here in our state, there's absolutely no relief whatsoever, and then we are lowering the tax credit for kids, basically just for a year. What are we doing here? I think it's really disingenuous to say that we don't want to do anything about gas when we've done stuff about gas previously. Hey y'all. People are hurting right now, and it seems like we are constantly only looking out for big corporations and the wealthiest of the wealthy. And I literally have hardworking everyday small business owners calling me right now, talking about they're having to go out of business, and this is not reflective of those needs. I would just ask that we vote down. We could have done combined reporting where we continually come back time and time again, myself, Rep Eskamani, a few others, asked to put that into legislation here which could save us. It can infuse $500 million at a minimum into the budget, but yet and still we don't do that. So I really would love and appreciate if you all moving forward, start taking into account hardworking everyday people who now have to go get two and three jobs, and they still don't want to go pay for tennis tickets. But we're offering up tax breaks for people to go to a tennis match. Are you serious right now? No one calls my office. I don't know. People calling y'all office saying, "Hey, can I get a few dollars so that I can go to this tennis match?" No, they're saying, I can't afford gas. Public's groceries are going up because of gas prices. Give me a break, y'all. This is not what folks want. Vote down on this tax. Vote for the billionair. >> Representative Gottlieb, you're recognized? >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I yield to Representative Eskamani. > Representative Eskamani, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I first want to take a moment to thank the Ways & Means staff for all of their work. I know that it was endless hours, I'm sure, during this extended special upon special upon special sessions. And it's been a privilege to work alongside Chair Duggan as my chairman in the Ways & Means silo. We don't always agree on every issue, but I appreciate the opportunity to have those discussions and have that dialogue and try to reach that consensus. I know you were advocating for some democratic projects in this package as well, and I thank you for that. I'm going to use this moment, one of my last ever speeches on the House floor, to emphasize some of the points Rep Nixon made around closing corporate tax loopholes. And in these eight years that I've been here, I have been amplifying this point around how Florida allows large corporations to basically create LLCs in other states to reduce their tax liability, to pay less than what they actually owe. Which ends up in our quality of life. It shows up in our inability to pay teachers a wage that can survive on. It shows up in our lack of public transportation and our affordability crisis. And so I really do urge the next generation of lawmakers to continue on that path of really taking these policies seriously. It is so important that we pass policy like combined reporting, which half the country has already done, just to set an even playing field. Because remember, our small businesses cannot compete. And as we continue to see monopolies and corporate consolidation, a bad situation becomes worse and worse and worse. Almost every part of our life has evolved to a subscription fee-based technology. We can't even have ownership over our technology anymore, because we have to pay another company for access to it. So I just want to emphasize how this tax packet unfortunately does not include any of those provisions, and of course, I echo the need for direct broad-based prosperity policies which are absent in this tax package. With that, Mr. Speaker, thank you for the opportunity, and I thank you for the chance to serve with you in this capacity. And hopefully future legislators will listen to the voters. They're asking us to focus on affordability, not give tax breaks to large corporations. And with that, I'll yield the time back. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. >> The clerk will pause the debate clock. Members, as a reminder, please go back into the bubble and sign the Conference Committee report. You can find it back in the bubble. They need your signature back there. Representative Gantt, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I yield to Representative Hinson. >> Representative Hinson, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise at the ninth hour to dissent. This country is plagued by mass shootings. We're having shootings in our schools, shooting in our streets. We're even having shootings at the White House. And yet we're having a firearm tax package that encourages shootings. I dissent. I dissent on this firearm package. Firearm accessories including magazines and ammunition, silencers. Triggers are now included in the sales tax holiday, not just on camping equipment, but on actual criminal activity, weapons that create mass destruction. I dissent. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. >> Representative Gantt, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We yield back the remaining of our time in this segment. >> Representive Maggard, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We yield our time back in totality. >> Members, time to debate has expired. Representative Duggan, you're recognized to close. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to join the ranking member in my recognizing our staff, our Ways & Means staff, Kimberly Burr, Vince Aldridge. They did fantastic work. Thank you. It's been a pleasure to serve with you both over these last two sessions. With that, I close. >> Representative Duggan, you're recognized for a motion. >> Mr. Speaker, I move to accept the Conference Committee report in its entirety. >> Representative Duggan moves to accept the Conference Committee report in its entirety. All in favor signify by saying yea. >> Yea. >> Opposed no. Show the motion adopted. Members, the question now occurs on final passage of House Bill 7031E as amended by the Conference Committee report. The clerk will unlock the machine and members will proceed to vote. Have all members voted? The clerk will lock the machine and announce the vote. >> Eighty-eight yea's, 11 nays, Mr. Speaker. >> Show the bill passes. Read the next committee report. >> By Representative McClure, House Bill 5001E, a bill to be entitled in Act-making appropriations. The Honorable Daniel Perez, Speaker House of Representatives, the Honorable Ben Albritton, President of the Senate. Dear Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Your Conference Committee on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on HB 5001E, same being on Act-making appropriations. Having met and after a full and free conference, do recommend to their respective Houses as follows. One, that the Senate receive from its Amendment 3026882; that the Senate and House of Representatives adopt the Conference Committee amendment attached here too and by reference made a part of this report. Reading of the report, Mr. Speaker. >> Representative McClure, you're recognized for a brief explanation of the conference report. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, this is the budget. The final conference report provides a total budget of $114.5 billion for fiscal year '26-'27. While this is higher than the House's original proposal, the final budget is still 365 million below last year's spending level. One thing I've learned over the last years is that doesn't allocations matter, reducing the spending matters. Although sometimes people feel like they've won or they've lost, what really matters is that the people of Florida feel that we are being responsible with their money. The allocations we negotiate with our Senate partners allowed us to maintain house priorities during conference, including school funding that follows a student, pay raises for veteran teachers, additional services for disabled Floridians, purchase of lands for conservation, critical investments in our correctional system, and tax relief. This budget improves the state's financial position compared to last fall's financial outlook, and also leaves significant reserves of more than $14 billion. This budget holds a line on spending while taking care of our state's most important needs, and now the subcommittee chairs will present highlights from their respective silos. >> Thank you, Representative McClure. Members, the subcommittee chairs will be recognized to explain their portions of the conference report. Once all subcommittee chairs have finished explanations, we will go into questions on the conference report by silo. Representative Trabulsy, you are recognized to explain your portion of the report. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, I'll focus my explanation of the Pre-K 12 budget on the major differences between the budget passed on March 19th and the conference budget. The Pre-K 12 budget for fiscal year '26-'27 now totals $21.1 billion, of which $16.2 billion is general revenue. The biggest part of this budget is the FEFP, and it actually changed very little. It still totals $30 billion with $16 billion in state funds and $14 billion in local funds. The funding structure for students funded in the FEFP remains the same. The total increase in FEFP is now $735.9 million, with $413.9 million of that from state funds and 322 million from local funds. We maintain the required local effort or RLE, growing by the value of new construction only, which now results in an ad valorem buyback of $116 million. Additionally, we were able to maintain our position to change the percentage of school districts total FEFP from local funds, which now increases the total ad valorem buyback to $173.3 million. The base student allocation increased by $85, and the funds per student increased by $150.31, bringing the total funds per student to $9,337.67. >> The FEFP now includes an increase of $201.3 million in classroom teacher, and other instructional personnel salary increase allocations. These funds must be used to provide salary increases to full time classroom teachers with 10 years or more experience teaching in Florida public schools. No increase may exceed $3,000, and if a school district has any remaining funds after providing the salary increases. The district can use the funds to provide salary increases to other instructional personnel or for costs related to compensation. And members, based on the data provided by the Department of Education, it's estimated that over 50% of our veteran teachers will be receiving a salary increase. Outside the FEFP, our early learning budget, the conference report now provides an additional $30 million in childcare development trust funds to ensure students who receive school readiness funding in the current fiscal year will be able to continue as a school readiness funded child in fiscal year ''26 ''27. And finally, Mr. Speaker, we had several school districts approach us about a current year decline in student enrollment caused by events beyond their control. As a result, the budget provides $79 million in the current year to school districts who experience such a decline. And Mr. Speaker, that is the differences in the pre K-12 budget. >> Representative Musada, you are recognized to explain your portion of the report. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, the conference report on the higher education budget totals 9,000,000,224 authorized positions. Highlights of the budget include an increase of 74 million to fully fund the Bright Futures program, and other financial aid programs. A total of 49.7 million to restore funding or increase funding to a number of workforce development programs, including capitalization incentive grants. >> Representative members, please tone down your conversations or take them to the bubble. Some members are having difficulty hearing the explanation. Continue, Representative Asado. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. An additional 30 million to the Florida college system to provide additional operating funds to all colleges with an emphasis to those with the lowest per student funding levels. The budget includes 45 million for targeted university initiatives including investments to further research on Parkinson's disease, diagnostic, and therapeutic services for children, and adults with autism. Expansion of post secondary educational opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities, and strengthening civic education and child welfare initiatives. Further the conference report includes an investment of 350 million for university performance based funding. Lastly the budget includes six million to fund expansion of the school guardian program into the college, and university systems. Those are the highlights of the higher education budget for fiscal year 2026, 2027. >> Thank you. Representative McFarland. You are recognized to explain your portion of the report. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, the conference report for Information Technology budget totals 401.1 million, which is 24% than the 529 appropriated in last year's budget. Palm, this budget fully funds the Department of Financial Services requests to complete the implementation of the Palm Project at 39 million, as well as various agencies Palm readiness requests, which shows an additional 45 million. For ACA, we are providing $13 million for Florida Healthcare Connections or FX Project, and that funding is provided exclusively to maintain systems that are already operational or have already been certified by the Center of Medicaid Services. We're providing $500,000 to the Office of the Chief Inspector General to contract for an independent evaluation of the current status of the FX program as we chart the path ahead. I'll briefly walk through a few other projects in various agencies recommended for funding. In commerce, the Access Florida system, 47.8 million, these are funds to continue the modernization of the access system which supports public assistance eligibility. I Connect. This is a project that is, and dear to many of our constituents' hearts. For APD, we're going to allocate $33.5 million for the funding of a competitive procurement of a replacement for the IConnect system. For Department of Corrections, OBIS. This continues Year 3 of the OBIS Modernization Project for the Department of Corrections, which supports efficient inmate processing, care and security, we're recommending $32 million. For FDM, more programs that our locals are familiar with using, Demis, and WebEOC, 6.7 million. These funds maintain critical emergency management systems within FDM used to support statewide emergency preparedness. And local government cybersecurity grants, 23.8 million, which are funds that combine both state and federal dollars to provide cybersecurity technical assistance, and grant funding to counties, and municipalities. Members, that's a conference report as it relates to IT. >> Thank you. Representative Mrode, you are recognized to explain your portion of the report. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, members, the overall healthcare budget in the final conference report totals $49.2 billion. It includes a 1.49% Medicaid managed care efficiency resulting in a $236.4 million reduction for fiscal year "26 "27. It provides $173.5 million for Medicaid nursing home rate increases tied to the quality incentive program. It provides $38.5 million for new, and additional pay slots in multiple counties throughout the state. It provides $22.8 million for a 1% rate increase to all eye Budget waiver providers. It provides authority to spend $75 million for the AIDS drug assistance program into fiscal year '26 '27. The major policy differences related to the program are the program will have no formulary change, which will allow access to Biktarvy again. The program is funded to provide for co payment, deductible assistance to ADAP clients. It continues the direct dispense program, and it retires. And it requires DOH work with OPAGA to evaluate the ADAP program, and include at least three options for restructuring of the program moving forward. It provides $63.9 million in child, and family welfare services, including foster care support, adoption assistance, foster parent recruitment, and expansion of support programs for at risk youth, and foster families. It provides $195.6 million for substance abuse, and mental health services, including funding for mental health treatment facilities, community based behavioral health settings, and opioid prevention and treatment services. Members, while the structuring of our budget is not competitive by Silo, I will note that of the total 327 FTE positions that we are eliminating in this year's budget, a whopping 274.4 of those FTEs came out of the healthcare budget. So if you want to talk about reducing the size, and scope, and doging state government, I'm very proud of the work we did in the healthcare Silo this year, and that concludes my presentation of the healthcare budget. >> Representative Sho, you're recognized to explain your person of the report. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Transportation, and Economic Development Budget Conference Committee negotiated a budget that invests in our workforce, arts, and culture, community development, and our state's transportation infrastructure. Affordable housing programs remain level funded at 286.4 million. This includes 165.7 million for ship, 70.8 million for sale, and 50 million for down payment, and closing cost assistance under the hometown heroes program. Funding for our cultural, and historical preservation grant programs at the Department of State also remained relatively stable compared to the House Bill. Budget maintains 23.1 million in funding for cultural, and museum grants compared to the 23 million provided in the House Bill. Historic Preservation small matching grant list is funded at 1.4 million, which is identical to the House Bill. In terms of economic development, compared to the House Bill, the Conference Committee increased funding 40%, the two largest increases, including 40 million for the jobs growth grant fund, and 27 million for rural infrastructure, funding stated at 80 million for visit Florida, and 24.5 million for space Florida. The Conference Committee fully funded replacement equipment for the highway patrol, including Rifle rated ballistic plates, forensic tools, and protective gear while increasing funding for the pursuit vehicles by 2.5 million. Finally the conference report continues to support increases in transportation infrastructure funding. Our agreement fully funds the 14.5 billion transportation work program, and it further provides 208.3 million for local transportation projects to support Community infrastructure. This is 112 million more than was in the House Bill. Mr. Speaker, that is the conference report for Ted. >> Thank you. Representative Maney, you are recognized to explain your portion of the report. Members, please hold down the volume of your conversations. Thank you. Representative Mahy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, the Justice Budget Conference report totals $8 billion, representing a $28.6 million total decrease or less than one half of 1% of the proposed House budget. The report includes $7 billion of general revenue and $1 billion of trust funds. It covers 45,269 authorized positions. The major differences between House Bill 5,001 Echo, and the conference report include $106.4 million in planning, design and construction. This is important of a new 600 bed correctional hospital unit, and the continuation of new dormitory construction at state operated correctional institutions. It includes 39.5 million in fixed capital outlay needs for the juvenile justice, and state court facilities. Including beginning construction on a new six DCA courthouse, and the Broward Juvenile Detention Center. Includes 23.7 million for local law enforcement support grants relating to investigation and prevention of drug trafficking Internet crimes against children equipment for improved safety , and response times. Training, and technology enhancements for cold case, and narcotics investigations. It also includes $22.7 million for juvenile justice residential services, including funds for additional commitment beds, allowing for placement of youth, and individual treatment plans at an accelerated pace. As well as 9.9 million for due process resources and clerk of court reimbursements to address increased cost of services provided by those entities. Mr. Speaker, that includes the conference report summary. >> Thank you. Representative Magar, do you recognize to explain your portion of the report? >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, I'm pleased to present the state administration portion of the budget conference report for fiscal year '26/'27. The budget conference report is very similar to the House proposed state administration budget and total spending. The budget totals for 2.97 billion, including 586.3 million in general revenue, 2.4 billion in trust funds. The budget includes funding for 11,306.5 authorized positions. This is a 3.6 decrease in total spending, and a 12.7 decrease in general revenue funds under the current physical appropriation. The total reductions include 10.3 million in recurring funds, 6.4 million in the general revenue funds, 3.9 million in trust funds, and 62 vacant positions. The funding highlights include 88.4 million for local fire stations, equipment, emergency response vehicles, and firefighter cancer research, 75.1 million for distributions in physically constrained counties, 36.9 million in fixed capital outlay for the Department of Management Services. Which includes funding for repair and maintenance of state buildings, 16 million for local government cybersecurity technical assistance grants. And finally, we have reappropriated $378 million in funding for MSafe Flota Home Grant Program to fully fund the inspection grants, and program administration. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That completes the highlights of the State Administration final Budget Conference report. >> Thank you. Representative Schneider, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, I am pleased to present the highlights of the agriculture, and natural resources budget. The proposed budget totaled $6 billion, approximately 700 million over the original House budget. Funding includes 1.4 billion in general revenue and 4.6 billion in trust funds. Funding includes for 9,148 authorized positions. Budget also reflects an 8% decrease in total spending under the current fiscal year. However, the conference report reflects a deep commitment to protecting our natural resources throughout our state. In the area of water quality restoration, environmental protection, a few of the highlights include 579.6 million for Everglades restoration, 569.2 million for drinking, and wastewater revolving loan program. 180.4 million for water quality improvement grant program and local water projects, as well as 170 million for the resilient Florida program, 167 million for wastewater cleanup, 60 million for the C 51 reservoir, 50 million for springs restoration, 25 million for the Indian River Lagoon to address water quality. Twenty million for Biscayne Bay water quality improvements, 20 million for Florida Keys area of critical concern, 15 million for innovative technologies for harmful algal blooms, 15 million for coral reef protection, and restoration, and 9.6 million for red tide research. In the area of land acquisition, so we can protect our lands for future generations. This budget includes $425 million for the rural, and family lands Protection Program, $100 million for Florida forever. $84.1 million for emergency wildlife management, 62.7 million for land management, 14 million for invasive species management , and habitat restoration, which provides for the removal, and management of Burmese Pythons, iguanas, and Tegus. Funding for state parks, and beaches in this budget includes 64.1 million for beach restoration, and 46.5 million for state park improvements. For agriculture research and funding specifically in the Department of Agriculture include $175.3 million for citrus screening, and research. Mr. Speaker, and members, those conclude the highlights of the Agriculture, and natural resources budget. >> Thank you. We'll now go into questions by Silo. Are there questions of Representative Trabulsy on the pre K 12 portion of the budget? >> Representative Bartleman, you're recognized for a question. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Hold on. Can we clear the pathway so I can see Rep Trebosi? Hold on. Hey, I have a question, and I don't know if you want me to ask this now or in implementing. It pertains to the voucher audit and the fraud, and we know that two people just got arrested for voucher fraud. And I know that there's been discussions about how we are going to clean up that program and be responsible for taxpayer dollars. Can you give me an update on what happened during this process and where we're going to go from here to have accountability? >> Representative Trabulsy? >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for that question. One was a comment regarding the arrests. Yes, I believe they were yesterday in accordance to fraud. Even though that's not a question, I'm going to give my input there and say, congratulations that we actually arrested people who were committing fraud in the State of Florida. If you're going to commit fraud, you should be arrested. So I hope it's just a sign to people to watch out how they're using our state dollars. Secondly, you asked about the report and what we're going to be doing for the vouchers. I believe, in the pre K-12 budget committee, we had four committee meetings addressing those particular issues, specifically around cross checks, the Florida EID, parents signing off before they receive money, and entire list of things that we wanted to accomplish during this session. I believe it was Sunday, the 24th, the House made a proposal to the Senate in the first offer to address each of these items, and the Senate came back and said, basically, no, we're not going to do anything. There's been a little bit of a scuttle saying that the House did not want to do anything, but I will urge you it is public record. These are public documents. You can go to the bump off or you can see what the House put in very clearly, very detailed, and you can also see that the Senate came back with nothing. >> Representative Bartleman. >> Thank you. So I'm hoping, I guess, I know you're in our education that next year that there's some commitment that we don't fall down on these things because we have to fix it. So are there plans for next year to continue cleaning it up? >> Representative Trabulsy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for that question. I don't have a crystal ball to look into next year, but if I had my way about it, I would say that we definitely need to address these issues. One thing that we did get though was an RFI, which is a request for information, and this is actually a request to look into an automated system that will help at least with the cross checks and some of the information sharing. >> Representative Gantt? >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Regarding the PICO funding for charter schools, what is the increased amount that they are receiving? >> Representative Trabulsy? >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for that question, but that is a higher ed question, not a pre K-12 question. >> Representative Gantt? >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Regarding the FEFP, what is or is there an amount that addresses inflation for school districts or in the FTE rather for school districts to not function in a deficit? >> Representative Trabulsy? >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In our opening remarks, I know that they were very lengthy. We did increase the FEFP by $736.9 million. We also put dollars in for our veteran teachers to receive a raise, which 50% of them will. If you're asking about inflation, that is not how the Florida legislature. We don't base our budget off of CPI. It's not required of us. We have another methodology to do that. >> Members, as a reminder, please go back to the bubble and sign the conference report if you've not yet done so. Representative Gantt? >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As far as a percentage of funds for scholarships versus public schools, what is the differential number or the percentage of money scholarships are receiving based on the increase from last year versus public school funding receiving from last year to this year? >> Representative Trabulsy? >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The state's funding model, the FEFP is aligned with our state's school choice policy based on which type of choice parents make either public or non-public, and the funding follows the student. So a school district should not receive funding for students who are choice non-public. There's not a separation of that. It is all students are funded with the same way in Florida. >> Representative Gantt? >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Regarding the BSA, has there been a calculation or funding provided to account for the BSA in the different districts because we know that living in Miami Dade County, the cost of living is significantly different than living in a smaller county or rural county in the State of Florida. So is there a differential for cost of living provided to school districts? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, we don't base our budget off of CPI or cost of living, and the base allocation increased by $85 per student. >> Representative Antone. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I heard you ask. You make two statements. One, you said, no teacher's salary increase can be more than $3,000. Did I hear that right? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for that question. Yes, so the salary increase is for veteran teachers who have been teaching in Florida schools for at least 10 years. It was originally proposed at 20 years, but our speaker really wanted to make a meaningful difference for teachers, so we lowered that threshold to 10 years. Each of those teacher is, if they qualify, is eligible for up to $3,000 salary increase. And if there is money leftover in their district, then they can use those dollars for other personnel. >> Peter Driscoll. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had a question about, and I apologize if this was asked and I missed it, Trebosi. But I saw that there was no increase in the BSA for VPK. Could you explain why there's no increase in the BSA for the VPK program? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Please give me one moment. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. We did maintain the BSA for VPK, and there was a slight decrease in enrollment in VPK this year. >> Legislator Scott. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And then I wanted to talk more about the BSA for our K-12 program because it's my understanding there's an $85 increase, but that cost of living, costs of inflation were not taken into account. And I'm just curious why not in a state where we know that we're having challenges with inflation, operational costs are rising. Why were those economic impacts not taken into account as we adjusted the BSA? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Representative, thank you for the question. Yes, we did not increase the BSA more than $85. That question has been asked and answered. However, we have provided funding in many other meaningful ways for our school districts this year. Again, the dollars that we are spending on teacher salary increases. Also, we changed the stabilization fund for our schools. We supplemented cost to school districts for conducting IEP scholarship students, and we provided $79 million to address the decline in student enrollment during the '25/26 year and we'll do the same in the following budget. So even though the BSA did not rise, we did take really meaningful efforts to help our school districts. >> Representative Antone. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks again for that answer. So next question, I think you mentioned that 50% of the veteran teachers would get a salary increase, how did you determine that only 50% or how did you come up with 50% getting a raise? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for that question. There's two reasons for that. One is the amount of dollars that were allocated, and also looking at the number of veteran teachers that we have. Not all of the veteran teachers have been teaching for 10 years or longer. >> Representative Robinson. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And my question goes along those lines. When you were speaking earlier, you said that those teachers that have been teaching for more than 10 years will receive increase if they qualify. Could you tell me what the qualifications would be outside of just the 10 years? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The biggest qualification that they've been teaching as a full time teacher in Florida for those 10 years. >> Representative Gantt. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So in your opening, you mentioned that there was an overall increase in funding. What percentage or what is the dollar amount of the monies earmarked for scholarships in that increase? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Representative, it's close to $4.5 billion of the total. >> Representative Gantt. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And what is the increase from last year's allocation to this year's allocation? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Please clarify. >> Representative Gantt. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That was an incomplete question. What is the difference in the increase from monies provided for scholarships last year to scholarships this year in the overall budget? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for the question. We don't differentiate with that, so there is no difference. >> Representative Gantt. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for that answer. So my next question is, what is the rationale because I do believe that, well, not believe, but I know that the auditor's recommendation was to separate the scholarships funds from the public school funding. And I do understand that the Senate proposed that, and was not adopted. Why did we not separate those funds in order to track that money accordingly? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for that question, representative. That has been a longstanding question and a longstanding debate between the House and the Senate. And my position is that just because you put your money somewhere else doesn't mean we're going to fix the problems. And so we want to fix the problems that we have that the OIG report identified and not just put the money somewhere else. >> Representative Antone Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Going to a different subject, how many home school students are receiving vouchers at this point in time? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Representative Antone, with all due respect, that doesn't have anything to do with the budget. >> Representative Antone. >> Next question. Thank you. How does this budget address the declining enrollment due to immigration and voucher students? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's a great question. I'm glad that you asked it. Several different ways. One is we made changes to the stabilization fund so that we are able to one, if a school district projected more students than actually attended, we're able to use some of those dollars to make the school district partially whole, as whole as it can be. Then also, if the district had more scholarship students, we addressed that on the scholarship side with discretionary funding. But then we also provided, as I mentioned earlier, $79 million of funding to hold these schools harmless who had projections this year and by no fault of their own had declining enrollment. >> Represent Hudson. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker, thank you, Rep Antone for asking one of my questions. My second question on that same thought, the declining enrollment is emptying a lot of buildings and many school districts across the state are having to close schools. Is that funding that you just described, will it assist schools in maintaining those buildings or what will we have to do with these buildings that are going to be emptied, because there are districts closing sometimes 10 schools? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for that question. Twofold. That is not addressed in the budget whatsoever, and we are not addressing operational costs here. But thank you. >> Representative Gantt. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regards to the acceleration programs, what increase in funding, if any, is in the budget for acceleration programs? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One moment, please. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I apologize for taking the time. I want to make sure I have the right answer for you. I know that we addressed this last year with the ABI BAS and those programs. What we found out that districts were not using the entire amount of dollars that we were giving them. So we did not allocate any more dollars to that this year. >> Representative Gantt. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the state mandated the school resource officers. Is there a line item for districts to receive funding in order to pay for school resource officers in this budget? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes. Actually, there's two ways. One is the safe school allocation in which each district will get $250,000, and the other one is a grant program, and that can be up to $100,000 per district. >> Representative Gantt. >> Thank you. And I'll make this my last question knock on wood. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I wanted to specifically talk about a $725,000 allocation to the company Espire for the development of the history of communism curriculum. Is that for all of the school districts statewide to receive this curriculum? If so, how was that company selected for them to receive this funding? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I apologize, Representative Gantt. I am not familiar with that funding. >> Further questions of Representative Trabulsy? Representative Joseph. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good morning, Representative. I was trying to understand this new AI program that's happening in the schools that we have allocated some funds for. Can you tell me more about this AI surveillance system? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can you be more specific with that? Because I'm not familiar with the AI program? Is that a project or is that something that is in the GAA budget for Pre K-12? >> Representative Joseph. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In specific Appropriation 108, it talks about a zero AI firearm detention program. That's what I was trying to get more information about. >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, again, for clarifying that. That is actually a member project I am not familiar with. >> Further questions? Representative Joseph. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand it's a member project. Is it tied to anything in your silo that is included in your portion of the budget? >> Representative Trabulsy. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for the question. No, it's not. >> We're moving on. Representative Busatta. Questions for Representative Busatta? Representative Eskamani. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and good morning, Chairwoman. I wanted to ask about preeminence funding because I know we don't have any, and I'm curious of how that decision came to be, especially with my almamater or University of Central Florida reaching that stature. I'm very curious of why the decision was made not to fund preeminence. >> Represent Busatta. >> Thank you, Mr