Florida's Latest News

House, Senate close on higher ed budgets; no tuition increases in either

Neither the House nor the Senate are including tuition increases in their respective proposed budgets, an analysis of each finds.

And the two chambers are close on overall funding for the State University System, with the Senate budget coming in at $4.7 billion and the House at $4.5 billion.

Both chambers’ budgets include $350 million for performance-based funding, with $100 million extra for schools deemed preeminent research universities, which includes Florida State University, the University of Florida and the University of South Florida.

The chambers also align on expanding the state’s Guardian program (HB 757) to state universities, which would allow certain staff to carry firearms on campus once meeting training requirements. Both chambers include $1.8 million to implement the law if it passes, along with another $4.2 million to implement it on college campuses.

The House version of the bill has cleared all of its Committee stops and awaits a floor vote, while a similar Senate version (SB 896) awaits a vote in the Appropriations Committee before heading to the floor for a full Senate vote.

Jenna Persons-Mulicka’s voter citizenship verification bill clears State Affairs Committee

A sweeping elections bill that would tighten voter citizenship verification requirements, overhaul post-election auditing procedures and expand state oversight of voter rolls cleared its second House Committee despite ardent opposition by voting access advocates.

The House State Affairs Committee voted to advance HB 991, sponsored by Fort Myers Republican Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, despite opposition by Democrats — who again rallied around an amendment by Orlando Democratic Rep. RaShon Young meant to ease voting access that failed to gain Committee approval.

Persons-Mulicka told Committee members that Floridians overwhelmingly support ensuring that only U.S. citizens vote in elections. 

“In 2020, 80% of Florida voters approved amending our state constitution to say just that,” Persons-Mulicka said. “While the important debate over the SAVE America Act happens on the national stage, we can, and must, continue to lead in Florida as the gold standard in election integrity. This bill strengthens our citizenship verification process, provides a commonsense list of voter ID, and stops foreign interference on our elections.” 

Senate shoots for the moon with Farmers Feeding Florida allocation, while House maintains funding

A state program allowing local farms to sell surplus agricultural products to the state to benefit hungry Floridians and maintain revenue streams is poised to receive funding for another year under budget proposals in both the House and Senate (PCB BUC 26-01, SB 2500).

But the chambers are far apart on just how much money should flow to the Farmers Feeding Florida program, with the Senate aiming for a year-over-year funding increase and the House eyeing the status quo.

The program, which took effect last July, launched with $38 million in state funding. The Senate spending plan calls for $63 million for the program in the 2026-27 fiscal year, while the House has included just $28 million, a $10 million drop from the current budget year.

The proposed funding disparity is not entirely surprising. Senate President Ben Albritton, himself a citrus farmer, has been a huge proponent, touting the program last year as a “hand up, not a handout” and as “setting a precedent that food insecurity is not imaginary.”

Florida House passes bill to add more transparency around conservation land decisions

The Florida House unanimously passed a bipartisan bill Tuesday that would shed more light on state conservation decisions after a series of recent public lands controversies gave little room for public input.

The measure, House Bill 441, would require a month’s notice when the state considers selling or trading conservation land. The bill also requires officials to explain why the land is no longer needed for conservation.

“What this bill does is make sure that Floridians do have adequate time to be able to know about the issues that are threatening the lands in their communities, and give them actual time to work on it,” said Rep. Allison Tant, a Democrat from Tallahassee who co-sponsored the bill.

Tant filed the bill alongside Rep. Kim Kendall, a Republican from St. Augustine, who introduced the legislation as a response to a proposal last summer to trade 600 acres of a beloved St. Johns County wilderness preserve in her district to a mysterious private holding company.

The way the proposal was unveiled by Florida’s top environmental regulators — giving the public only a few days to digest the plans before it was slated for a vote — highlighted gaps in state law, Kendall said.