At the time of writing this column, I am winding down a whirlwind of an eventful week from Tallahassee. Not long after the Florida Legislature passed the 2026-2027 state budget on May 29, Gov. Ron DeSantis called for the long-anticipated special session on property taxes for legislators to reconvene the following Monday.

The special session on property taxes lasted two days, with the Legislature ultimately passing the governor’s proposal, concluding (hopefully) legislative business in Tallahassee for this year. Now that we are settled back home in the district, I am eager to share updates on these events.

First, the Legislature passed a balanced, $114.5 billion state budget for the 2026-2027 Fiscal Year (starting July 1). According to House Speaker Daniel Perez, this budget balances reducing overall spending by $365.3 million and maintaining more than $14 billion in reserves, all while keeping Florida on track with investments in its priorities. Florida’s specific core priority investments are education, public safety, health care, environment, housing and transportation infrastructure.

In addition to the significant reserves, the finalized budget includes $8.6 billion in unallocated general revenue reserves and $5.7 billion in the Budget Stabilization Fund.

Along with the budget, the Legislature passed a tax relief package containing $272.2 million in state and local tax cuts. I applaud Speaker Perez, Senate President Ben Albritton, and budget chiefs Lawrence McClure and Ed Hooper on their leadership throughout the budget process as we collectively protect taxpayers and strongly position Florida financially.

Following the passage of the budget, the Legislature turned right around and reconvened last week to discuss Gov. DeSantis’ proposal for property taxes. This measure proposes increasing the state’s current $50,000 homestead exemption to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. The proposal, however, does not apply to school district property tax levies.

In response to concerns from local governments and firefighters regarding significantly reduced revenue to fund local services, the proposal was amended to remove a provision that would have created a trust fund to assist rural counties. It also adds provisions lowering the current 10% cap on annual assessment increases for non-homesteaded properties (including vacation/investment homes, apartments/commercial properties) and limits the use of property taxes to core services, including public safety, stormwater, education, infrastructure and constitutional offices (supervisors of elections, property appraisers and tax collectors).

The Legislature approved the governor’s amended proposal, 75-27 in the House and 30-8 in the Senate, with concerns lingering on both sides of the political aisle.

There’s an old saying in negotiations — that if nobody is happy, you’ve probably gotten the best deal possible. On both side of this issue there will be those who are not completely satisfied, but the ultimate outcome will now be in the hands of the voters to decide on the November ballot. This new constitutional amendment will take effect with 60% support.

I appreciate Gov. DeSantis’ leadership on this initiative and was proud to support it, and I plan to share more details about this proposal in a future column.