The Florida House has passed a resolution to extend the legislative session until June 30. The move comes amid stumbling budget negotiations with the Senate and leaves the current situation in limbo, as the Senate needs to agree for the session to be extended
House Speaker Daniel Perez said budget negotiations stalled after Senate President Ben Albritton backed away from a tentative agreement on the budget.
“For me in my community or Miami and my culture as a Cuban, your word is your bond, and that means everything to us. I'm one of the old school guys. I can broker a deal, offer handshake. You can take that to the bank, and, you know, it's a sad day in the legislature, when all of a sudden you're going backwards instead of going forwards on something that should have been coming to an end here shortly,” he said.
It's unclear whether Albritton will agree to extend the session. Adding to the calculus is Governor Ron DeSantis, who has been feuding with Perez and is criticizing the House on its budget negotiations.
“I think what you've seen the legislature, you've got some of these folks in that in the House leadership, they have a personal agenda. They have vendettas, a petty it's not being driven by strong policy,” he said during a press conference Monday.
Perez responded to DeSantis by accusing the governor of lobbing his criticisms from afar while on a taxpayer funded state-hopping press trip instead of coming to the table to negotiate.
“The difference between the governor and the house is the house is always willing to have the tough conversation. We're always willing to answer the tough questions. We're always willing to have the debate. The governor isn't willing to have a conversation. Period. There's no difference between him and any seventh grader in Miami-Dade County right now who tweets,” he said.
As Republicans are throwing barbs at each other, Democrats are blaming them all.
As Florida Republican leaders are fighting each other amid state budget negotiations, Florida Democrats are throwing barbs at the GOP.
House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said the fight to reduce spending and lower taxes stems from previous mismanagement by Republicans.
“We heard the speaker just say that we have a state budget that's inflated and that has too much spending, while the Republicans have been in charge of the state budget for nearly 30 years now. And if we have such a bloated budget, how are we 50th in teacher pay? And how is there such a lack of housing affordability? And why is it that people can't afford health care? So, there's a lot of mixed messaging going on,” she said.
The legislature is constitutionally required to pass a balanced budget by July 1st. If that doesn’t happen, the state could head for a government shutdown.