UPDATE: Special Session on Florida State Budget

Florida lawmakers have one constitutional responsibility: pass a state budget. For the second consecutive year, they failed to do so during the regular legislative session, forcing taxpayers to fund repeated returns to Tallahassee for special sessions because of political dysfunction and gridlock.

Instead of addressing Florida’s affordability crisis, lawmakers spent the session advancing anti-voter and anti-DEI legislation while families struggled with rising housing costs, skyrocketing insurance premiums, underfunded schools, and growing healthcare insecurity. Governor DeSantis is now set to sign a budget that fails to meet the urgency of this moment or provide meaningful relief to working Floridians.

With critical elections on the horizon, changes to Florida’s election laws, and potential changes to congressional districts, this budget also fails to meaningfully invest in Florida’s election administration infrastructure or ensure counties have the resources needed to effectively administer elections and serve voters. 

That same failure to invest extends across nearly every issue impacting working families. Florida continues to rank near the bottom nationally in education funding and teacher pay, while millions face growing threats to healthcare access. 

Floridians deserve leadership focused on solving problems, not scoring political points. Voters will remember who failed to deliver when their communities needed action most.

The Florida Legislature concluded its budget Special Session with the passage of HB 5001-E, the FY 2026–27 General Appropriations Act. This is the second consecutive year that the legislature failed to pass a budget during the regular legislative session that concluded on March 13th. The final budget totals $114.5 billion with $52.3 billion in General Revenue and $62.2 billion in Trust Funds. It is lower than last year in both total dollars and per capita spending. Florida is spending less per person this year, even as housing, groceries, and healthcare costs continue to climb for families across the state.

Our legislative team has gone through the full conference report. Click HERE to read the budget summary. What we found is a budget that invests heavily in prisons, law enforcement, and reserves, while leaving critical gaps in the programs Black families depend on most. Here is our line-by-line community assessment.

• Education - The K–12 education budget totals $35.1 billion including state, federal, and local revenues. The base per-student allocation increased by $85, just 1.58 percent. Total per-student funds rose to $9,337.67, a $150.31 increase. A $79 million Declining Enrollment Supplement was added to aid traditional public schools that are losing students. These increases do not keep pace with inflation or the real cost of educating children today. Additionally, there are gaps in funding for programs that benefit our children, such as community schools, trauma-informed education, and culturally relevant curriculum. 

• Higher Education - The budget allocates only $34.5 million to Historically Black Colleges and Universities under the Private Colleges line. Compare that to $6.7 billion for the broader State University System and $2.7 billion for the Florida College System. 

• Health and Human Services- $49.2 billion with 30,723 positions. Includes $38 billion in funding for Medicaid and KidCare, $75 million for AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), $209.9 million for the Rural Health Transformation Program, and various initiatives for the Department of Children and Families, including $166.6 million for opioid prevention and treatment. These are major gains but there are some areas for concern. Only $1 million will fund the Uterine Fibroid Research Database, which disproportionately impacts Black women, and there is no mention of racial equity or community health programs for underserved communities in the budget. 

• Housing and Economic Relief- SHIP (State Housing Initiatives Partnership) received $165.7 million and SAIL (State Apartment Incentive Loan) received $70.77 million both administered through the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. The Hometown Heroes Housing Program received $50 million. $40 million Florida Job Growth Grant Fund and $22.5 million Economic Development Toolkit

• Criminal and Civil Justice- The Criminal and Civil Justice budget totals $8.02 billion. Of that, nearly half, $4.05 billion goes directly to the Department of Corrections. Including $50 million for a new prison hospital, $52 million for prison dorms, and $60.2 million for the DOC Health Services contract. An issue of concern is the $35.1 million designated for the DOC operational deficit backfill. The prison system is running in the red, and the legislature chose to fill the hole rather than ask why it is in the red. Another concern is that the Department of Juvenile Justice received $813.9 million, including $8.7 million to expand residential commitment capacity, without acknowledgement in the budget for restorative justice, mental health, or youth prevention programs. Black youth are overrepresented in the juvenile system, without programming to address the root cause, the school to prison pipeline will continue to exist. 

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion-The FY 2026–27 budget contains no funding for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs anywhere in the state budget. Over several years, DeSantis and the Republican supermajority have systematically defunded and prohibited DEI programs at state universities, in state government, and throughout K–12 education. Culturally, the budget does include $800,000 for the Florida African American Heritage Preservation Network under the Department of State. 

• Elections and Voting- The Department of State’s elections budget includes $4.5 million for the Voting System Automated Independent Audit Program, $1.8 million for reimbursement to Counties for Special Elections and $1.5 million for Advertising Proposed Constitutional Amendments. We do not understand how the primary state-funded resource, the Voter Assistance Hotline, only received $800,000.  This is the phoneline for voters who have questions about their rights, their registration, or the voting process. For a state of over 22 million people, with one of the most aggressively restricted voting environments in the country, this is an insult. That is less than four cents per eligible voter.

There is no funding for voter registration support, no investment in civic education in underserved communities, no support for the rights restoration process for people with prior felony convictions, and no community voter education programs. Because the state will not fund voter assistance, education, and empowerment in Black communities, Equal Ground must. Your support through donations, volunteering, and spreading the word is not optional. It is how we survive this moment.