Ten days into the budget Special Session, the House made its latest move in the Transportation and Economic Development conference, doubling its offer for local road projects to $200 million and edging toward the Senate on jobs, space and housing.
The latest House offer hits several of the biggest pieces still separating the two chambers. The $200 million for local transportation work is double the roughly $95.7 million the House carried into conference and well above the Senate’s $100 million.
On the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature economic development tool, the House is meeting the Senate most of the way on dollars while keeping a hand on the spigot. The offer lands at $40 million, up from the House’s $5 million and just shy of the Senate’s $45 million.
But House proviso holds $20 million of it in reserve and bars FloridaCommerce from tapping the balance until after Jan. 5, 2027, when the agency could request release through a budget amendment. The structure, not the topline, is the real fight here.
The House is also pulling back on military construction. Its military affairs total drops to about $29.1 million from roughly $52.1 million, with Camp Blanding’s Level II work cut to $10 million from $40 million and the REVAMP program trimmed to $3.5 million from $6.5 million.
The Senate had carried just $12 million in this area, all for Florida State Guard positions and operations, so the House is sliding toward a smaller footprint even as its number stays above the Senate’s.
Space Florida picks up new program in the offer. The House adopts the Senate’s $1 million Data Storage Pilot Program, which would have Space Florida contract with a Florida-based aerospace company for orbital data storage as a resilience backstop for state agencies, with up to five agencies participating and data covered by federal criminal-justice security rules carved out. A separate Launch Pad Infrastructure line settles at $3 million, the Senate’s figure, down from the House’s $5 million.
Affordable housing remains the murkiest piece. The House holds the SAIL Innovative Housing line at zero against the Senate’s $112 million.
Leaders say they can still finish before the end of May, but it could be close. A budget memo from House Speaker Daniel Perez has House Budget Chair Lawrence McClure and Senate Appropriations Chair Ed Hooper meeting at 8 a.m. Tuesday to hold talks “until completion.”
If the budget hits desks that day, it starts the constitutionally required 72-hour cooling-off period, teeing up a House floor vote Friday, May 29, with the Senate to follow before Sine Die — with a month to spare before the July 1 fiscal year.
It would be the second straight year of a drawn-out budget; last year’s wasn’t passed until June 16.
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Ed. note: This story was drafted with assistance from AI. Editorial judgment, sourcing, and final review were performed by Peter Schorsch and the Florida Politics editorial team.
