Florida's Legislative Session Headed For Overtime As Budget Talks Drag Out

Florida Phoenix

FLORIDA — Legislative leaders have given up on completing the 2022 regular session on schedule on Friday.

That’s because negotiations over a $100 million-plus state budget for the fiscal year beginning on July 1 have taken too long. That appropriations bill is the one measure the Legislature absolutely has to pass.

Yet the House and Senate legally can’t vote on the annual budget until it has been distributed to members and the public for three days. That would have required conference committee negotiations to have concluded on Tuesday.

They didn’t.

In a memorandum distributed Tuesday night to senators and House members, House Speaker Chris Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson credited their respective budget committee chairs, Jay Trumbull and Kelli Stargel, for making “tremendous progress” in negotiations.

But: “Notwithstanding the tremendous efforts of all involved, we are coming up against the 72-hour mark. Rather than hold important public conference meetings unreasonably late into the night, we have asked chairs Trumbull and Stargel to notice a meeting for tomorrow,” the leaders wrote.

They didn’t say whether the remaining work would happen over the weekend or on Monday.

“When the budget is on the desk, and the 72-hour clock has started, we can determine the specific timeline for a concurrent resolution to extend session to vote on the budget and related bills,” they wrote.

One complication is that Gov. Ron DeSantis has promised to veto the Legislature’s version of a plan to redraw Florida’s congressional district lines because it includes what DeSantis considers a pro-Black racial gerrymander in North Florida. If he does, the Legislature would probably reconvene to work on that matter.

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