Ben Albritton: Stalemate between House, Senate on tax cuts guarantees Session overtime

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. 3/4/25-Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, speaks during the opening day of the 2025 Legislative Session, Tuesday at the Capitol in Tallahassee. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

Senate President Ben Albritton said budget leaders in the upper chamber still cannot agree on budget allocations with the House. That guarantees Session will not end on time.

“I’m disappointed to report that we have not yet reached an agreement on allocations of the House,” the Wauchula Republican said in a six-minute speech on the Senate floor. “The biggest hurdle at this time is related to tax relief, both the number and the policy.”

Until the chambers agree on top lines for spending, appropriators in the chambers cannot meet for budget conferences. The Legislature must complete a budget and allow a three-day cooling period before final passage, which require negotiations to be complete by Tuesday. But even if lawmakers convened through the weekend in budget conferences, it would be impossible to meet that deadline, Albritton made clear.

Senate Appropriations Chair Ed Hooper, a Clearwater Republican, and House Budget Chair Lawrence McClure, a Dover Republican, have sent offers on allocations back and forth over the past couple of days, both have previously told Florida Politics. Albritton said the Senate most recently sent an offer with $1.3 billion in recurring tax relief and $1.5 billion in non-recurring tax cuts, along with local tax relief.

The Senate offer included key parts of tax relief proposals released by Albritton earlier this month.

“This represents well over $3 billion of broad-based tax relief,” he said. “Historic by any standard, our offer to the House included a permanent elimination of the sales tax on clothing and shoes for items that cost $75 or less, a permanent reduction of the business rent tax from 2% to 1%, a one-time credit for vehicle registration fees, sales tax holidays for back to school, disaster preparedness, school time and Freedom Summer, which our constituents have come to expect.”

But he said Speaker Daniel Perez has held fast to an insistence lawmakers pass a cut in the state sales tax rate, from 6% to 5.25%.

“We’ve considered the House’s broad, across-the-board, sales tax proposal and long-term budget assumption from every angle we could think of,” Albritton said. “I understand their perspective, and I applaud the resolve to pursue better government, and I have an immense respect for the Speaker and his entire team. He’s a good man.

“At the end of the day, I’m just not comfortable with a proposal that I believe will likely lead to shortfalls, if not substantial shortfalls, in the out years.”

The good news, Albritton said, is lawmakers will not work through the end of Session, May 2, without any break.

“After today’s work, you can head home for the weekend,” he said.

But what remains unclear is how, or when, the Legislature will complete its only constitutionally required action this year, passage of a state budget.

Florida Politics has reached out to both Hooper and McClure about the next steps in negotiations. Hooper said a decision has not yet been made. McClure did not immediately respond.