Gov. Ron DeSantis late Sunday proposed a $115.6 billion budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year that calls for increasing pay for state law enforcement officers and firefighters, eliminating a commercial lease tax and holding a new sales tax “holiday” on guns and ammunition.
The proposal is an initial step as lawmakers prepare to negotiate a final budget during the regular legislative session, which starts March 4. It also was released as DeSantis quarrels with state House and Senate leaders over an immigration bill that lawmakers passed during a special session last week.
The 2025-26 fiscal year will start July 1.
The governor’s proposal includes cutting 741 government positions and setting a goal of paying down 50 percent of the state’s tax-supported debt by the 2027-28 fiscal year.
The proposal calls for $118.3 million in pay increases for state law-enforcement officers and firefighters. Entry level law-enforcement officers would see pay pushed up 20 percent, while veteran law enforcement officers and firefighters would receive 25 percent increases, according to a summary of the proposal from the governor’s office.
The package also calls for $2.2 billion in tax cuts that mostly would come through the elimination over two years of a tax that businesses pay on commercial leases, a move long sought by business groups.
Under DeSantis’ proposal, the tax would go from 2 percent to 1 percent on Jan. 1 and then be crossed out a year later. The lease tax, imposed since 1969, went from 4.5 percent to 2 percent last year as part of a 2021 deal to require out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases made by Floridians.
The governor’s proposal also calls for the return of sales tax holidays, allowing shoppers to avoid sales taxes on school supplies and clothes in August, disaster supplies at the start and the peak of the hurricane season, and recreational purchases throughout July.
He also proposed a “Second Amendment Summer” sales tax holiday between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July that would temporarily remove sales taxes on ammunition, firearms and related items. The new tax holiday would save shoppers an estimated $8 million, according to the governor’s office.
The budget proposal doesn’t seek tuition or fee increases for students at Florida colleges or universities, and it would maintain funding for the Bright Futures Scholarship Program at $632 million.
Per-student funding in kindergarten through 12th grade would increase by $222, to $9,205.
In the environmental portion of the budget, DeSantis proposed $805 million for Everglades restoration projects. He also proposed such things as $3 million for removing invasive Burmese pythons from the Everglades and constructing shooting and archery facilities in Liberty and Polk counties.
