Janelle Irwin Taylor
The state budget for fiscal year 2025-26 will include an across-the-board 2% pay raise for state employees, according to sources familiar with budget negotiations.
That is good news to state employees who otherwise thought they’d be left out of the upcoming budget after Gov. Ron DeSantis issued his recommended state budget in February that, for the first time in four years, didn’t include an across-the-board pay raise. DeSantis did not include a pay raise in his draft budget in 2019, but included them in subsequent years, until this year.
While plans for 2% raises are in the works, the budget is not yet finalized. Leaders in the House and Senate on Friday reached a budget deal, paving the way to begin budget conferencing this week. Budget details will be negotiated through that process, which begins Tuesday.
The framework so far includes $2.25 billion in recurring revenue reductions, including $900 million through the elimination of the business rent tax, a priority of House Speaker Daniel Perez; $350 million through permanent sales tax reductions; and $250 million in debt reduction. The budget also calls for $750 million in annual payments to a rainy day fund, until a new cap of 25% is reached, a level up from the current 10%.
It’s worth noting that even if the finalized budget, expected by June 16, includes the 2% state employee raises, Gov. DeSantis still has line item veto authority and, in an extreme case, also could veto the entire budget. The latter scenario seems exceedingly unlikely considering the late hour in which the budget is being finalized — the current fiscal year budget ends June 30, with the new budget taking effect July 1. A budget veto would leave lawmakers with an incredibly limited time to reach a new deal to send back to the Governor.
And vetoing state employee raises, which impacts nearly 100,000 workers, would likely be a bad look for the Governor, who is already facing blowback over the Hope Florida scandal involving funds critics claim were misappropriated to help DeSantis defeat the 2024 recreational cannabis amendment.
Budget conferences will run Tuesday through Thursday of this week, with unresolved issues after Thursday bumped to House and Senate budget chiefs, Rep. Lawrence McClure and Sen. Ed Hooper.
The Legislature is tentatively scheduled to hold a sitting June 16th, but the exact date and time will be determined by the required 72-hour cooling off period between when lawmakers finish work on the budget and when they officially pass it.
The process comes weeks after the Legislative Session was supposed to end May 2. Budget negotiators failed to reach a budget deal before the end of the 60-Day Session, sending it into overtime. The current extended Session had been scheduled to end June 6, but that deadline also appears headed for an extension, given the latest from Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton in memos sent Friday.
