Speaker Perez is not impressed with Gov. DeSantis, Senate President Albritton

The Florida House and Senate have made no progress toward a budget deal during the past three weeks, House Speaker Daniel Perez acknowledged Tuesday, saying budget negotiations have to “start all over again.”

The House voted Tuesday to further extend the already-extended session, from June 6 to June 30. Although, since the Senate did not meet, the House-desired extension is not solid. 

Perez, during a half-hour floor session Tuesday, emphasized the contrast between the House and Senate and governor’s office in budget negotiations. 

“The governor isn’t willing to have a conversation, period, period,” Perez said. “There’s no difference between him and any seventh grader in Miami Dade County right now who tweets.”

Perez said he hasn’t spoken to Gov. Ron DeSantis in “quite some time.”

Budget, tax deal off the table

The two chambers said on May 2 that they had agreed to a budget framework, which included a cut to sales taxes. That framework was no more after DeSantis said last week a sales tax cut would be “dead on arrival” and Albritton issued a memo to senators soliciting advice to develop a new tax package. 

“I have very strong feelings about the Senate president’s actions,” Perez told his chamber. “As presiding officers, as elected officials, our word is our bond. Breaking our word, breaking a deal, is breaking faith, not only with one another, but also with our institutions. However, I will not allow these actions to deter us from fulfilling our constitutional obligations.”

Dropping the agreement was a surprise to Perez. 

“For me, in my community of Miami, and my culture as a Cuban, your word is your bond, and that means everything to us,” Perez told reporters Tuesday. “I’m one of the old-school guys. I can broker a deal off a handshake.”

Perez said he does not think a final budget is any closer than it was three weeks ago and told to members the budget is “truly worth fighting for.”

Budget negotiations, Perez said, are “moving at a snail’s pace,” are “fluid,” and he had nothing “concrete” to share. 

Perez has criticized the governor for releasing videos on social media criticizing the House instead of engaging in direct conversations.

“At some point, adults have to prevail. I am willing to have that conversation in person at any moment. He is not. … Why are you not willing to have a tough conversation? What is it, that, are you scared? Is he scared of having a tough conversation? I have no other conclusion to reach but that,” Perez told reporters. 

Perez criticized DeSantis’ use of the state’s airplane to fly around Florida, especially in the past few weeks, to insult the House. DeSantis spent Tuesday at the Ohio Capitol advocating for congressional term limits. 

“I know today he took his private plane out to Ohio,” Perez said. “If he would spend more time here in this Capitol having conversations with myself and other members of the House, he would understand our position, why we’re in that position,”

Priorities

The House resolution to extend until June 30 includes the same list of bills in the original extension that may be taken up. Among them are budget-related bills, including SB 110, the $200 million Rural Renaissance, a priority for Albritton. All other bills died May 2. 

Throughout the session, House committees questioned “the numerous failures of our state agencies,” as Perez put it, reiterating that the state has a “spending problem.”

Perez said, “Cutting recurring spending is the number one goal of the House. The House is not moving.”

DeSantis wants to eliminate property taxes, and leaders of each chambers have shown interest in that idea. Voters would have to decide to do that in 2026 at the earliest. In the meantime, DeSantis has proposed a $1,000 property tax rebate for Florida homeowners. 

The only option Perez has ruled out, he said, “is simply mailing $1,000 checks from the state treasury,” saying that would not solve the property tax problem. 

“They are just state taxpayers apologizing for local government spending, which is the kind of irresponsible idea I associate with California policy makers,” Perez said. 

Albritton has said senators have told him a 0.25% sales tax reduction is not “meaningful” and that a $2.5 billion recurring tax cut could constrain options for “major property tax reform.”

A Senate spokesperson told the Phoenix that Albritton remains “hopeful” that the budget can be completed by June 6 and “the president was opposed to the expense of bringing senators up to Tallahassee this week to vote on a procedural motion.”

“We have to remember that this is a part-time Legislature. Most of my members, including myself, have other jobs, like full-time jobs, and we need to be able to have the predictability of a schedule so that we can get back to fulfilling those duties,” Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell told reporters Tuesday. 

Neither Perez nor Driskell was concerned about a shutdown should talks stretch past July 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year. 

“I think it’s likely that nothing could get done,” and “the worst case scenario” is “a skeletal-type budget that funds critical resources and probably nothing else,” Driskell said.