By Christine Sexton, The Florida Phoenix
The Tallahassee money games have begun.
The Florida House and Senate in the last 24 hours released dueling state budget plans that are about $1 billion apart, with the House proposing to spend $113.6 billion and the Senate $115 billion between July 1 this year and June 30, 2027.
Neither the House nor the Senate budget meets the $117.4 billion spending level Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed in his FY 2026-27 budget request submitted in January.
And the legislative proposals fall short of the governor’s wishes on several fronts. For instance, DeSantis pushed for $62 million for the Florida State Guard, a $26 million increase over its existing budget.
The House’s budget would slash funding for the State Guard altogether, whereas the Senate would direct $33.9 million to the guard, or about $700,000 less than today.
Other examples of DeSantis’ legislative budget request falling short with legislative leaders include:
- Teacher pay raises: The governor wanted $200 million in additional funds for teacher pay raises. The House and Senate offered half that amount, with the former proposing $101.4 million and the latter willing to appropriate $100.3 million.
- Schools of Hope: The governor’s legislative budget request included $20 million for Schools of Hope, or charter schools that may co-locate in struggling public schools. The Senate’s proposed budget would allocate $6 million for the charter schools, keeping funding at existing levels, while the House, which has traditionally championed Schools of Hope, eliminates funding for them altogether.
- Job growth grants: DeSantis asked for $50 million a program that awards money to cities and counties. The Senate agreed to the request but there is no funding for it in the House budget.
- Emergency fund: The governor asked for $500 million for a controversial emergency fund that has been used to pay for immigration enforcement. The Senate has offered $250 million while the House only set aside $100 million and has recommended limiting the fund to natural disasters.
- Food testing: The governor announced in a budget-related press release that he wants $5 million to expand testing for contaminants, such as heavy metals, bacteria, pesticides, and microplastics, to safeguard public health and ensure that food and household items used by Floridians are safe and trustworthy. The Senate’s proposed budget includes $2 million for testing. The House budget doesn’t include any funding for the program.
The House included a proposal from the governor to transfer the campus of the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee to New College of Florida. The Senate does not include that proposal.The Senate proposes $200,000 to fund the “Patriotic displays in classrooms” bill, which would put pictures of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in each public school in the state. The House did not lay out a specific line item for that.
A Closer Look at the House and Senate Proposed Spending Plans for FY 26-27 added by Staff on
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Teachers Union has a leftest mentality, they blind to actual facts
Governor proposed budget includes the following:
Investing in Florida’s K-12 Students
Florida is the education state—ranking #1 in a variety of different educational categories, including overall education and education freedom. Florida has prioritized providing our students with a high-quality education that fits their individual needs. The Floridians First Budget builds on Florida’s record investments in education, providing a historic $30.6 billion in funding for the K-12 public school system. This will include the highest per student investment ever, providing $9,406 per student, an increase of $279 over last year. This investment will also cover the costs of nearly 476,000 students who are projected to participate in Florida’s school choice program—the Family Empowerment Scholarship.
Additional funding highlights for Florida’s K-12 students include:
$1.56 billion to provide salary increases for teachers and other instructional personnel, an increase of $200 million over FY 2025-2026.
$1.71 billion for early childhood education, including $483.4 million for Voluntary Prekindergarten.
$300 million for the Safe Schools Allocation, an increase of $10 million over FY 2025-2026.
$17.5 million to support civics engagement programs, including $10 million for the Florida Civics Seal of Excellence Program.
Florida Leads the Nation for Higher Education
Florida has ranked #1 for Higher Education for nearly a decade, while also holding the line on tuition to provide a quality education at an affordable price. The Governor’s Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Budget builds on Florida’s success and ensures that Florida will continue to have the top education system in the country.
For colleges and universities, the Floridians First Budget recommends:
$1.9 billion for the Florida College System
$4 billion for the State University System
$100 million for continued recruitment and retention of quality faculty at our state universities.
$146 million for Florida’s four Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Providing a quality education that leads to quality jobs is an important part of ensuring that Florida’s workforce can continue to meet the demand of the job market. When the Governor took office, he set a goal of being the best state in the nation for workforce education by the year 2030, and Florida is well on its way to meet this goal, investing more than $12 billion in workforce education since 2019. The Governor’s Budget continues this progress by investing $800 million for workforce education programs, ensuring that Floridians can continue to access workforce education opportunities that lead to high-demand, high-wage jobs. This investment includes:
$130 million for nursing education programs to help address nursing vacancies.
$100 million for the Workforce Development Capitalization Incentive Grant Program to expand or establish career and technical education programs
$20 million for the Governor’s Pathways to Career Opportunities Grant Program to support pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs for high school and college students
When was the last time the Teacher’s Union supported a Republican Governor…and teacher pay raises are at the top of the list.
Bubba, I believe during the time Jeb Bush was Governor we received no pay raises.
No pay increase for state workers? We’re among the lowest paid in the country.