No Budget! Session Ends in a Whimper
Lawmakers adjourned the 2026 Legislative Session without approving a budget and will have to return to Tallahassee for a second consecutive year to pass a spending plan.
They also neglected two of Governor Ron DeSantis’ priorities: property tax reform and Congressional redistricting, the latter which will taken up in a special session April 20.
A priority of FAST, House Bill 1283 by Representative Tom Fabricio (R-Miami Lakes), which would have prohibited anonymous complaints against law enforcement officers and required that complainants sign and attest to a complaint once again passed the House and died on the Senate calendar (see page 4).
On the plus side, an amended version of Marsy’s Law that will protect the identity of law enforcement officers involved in lethal force incidents, and the Officer Jason Raynor Act, which mandates a life sentence with no possibility of parole for anyone who kills a police officer, both passed (see page 4).
A second attempt in consecutive years to consolidate the Florida Highway Patrol under the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) was bottled up in multiple committees and did not receive a hearing.
And a last minute amendment to the massive transportation package to raise the speed limit to 80 mph on interstate highways and bump speed limits on other state roadways was killed thanks to timely intervention from friends in the Senate.
The House and Senate budget proposals (page 3) once again fund no new trooper positions, further stretching the FHP’s capabilities.
The Senate is proposing a 5% pay increase for troopers and other state leos, while the House is proposing a 3% increase. That number will have to be hashed out and agreed upon when lawmakers return in April.
Another disparity in FHP funding that will have to be negotiated is the purchase of new patrol cars. The House has budgeted $14.3 million while the Senate proposal is at $19.1 million. Stay tuned…