House Speaker Daniel Perez wants Florida to become the only state in the nation to permanently reduce its sales tax, proposing on Wednesday a 0.75% cut to bring the state sales tax from its current 6% to 5.25%. 

“This will not be a temporary measure; a stunt or a tax holiday. This will be a permanent, recurring tax reduction,” Perez said during remarks to the House Chamber. 

The decrease is expected to save Floridians $5 billion per year, according to Perez. 

Perez said it would be the largest tax cut in state history. 

“We have forgotten a fundamental truth – this money isn’t ours. Tax dollars don’t belong to the government, they belong to the people,” Perez said. 

He made the point that while the Legislature in recent history has “justifiably called out local governments for misspending and mismanagement,” lawmakers “have been reluctant to turn our gaze on ourselves and hold state government to those same standards.” 

Pointedly, he said the state has a spending problem.

“More importantly, we have a recurring spending problem,” Perez added, noting that while member projects — often referred to as budget turkeys — “gain the most attention” because of vetoes, they don’t impact the state’s overall budget growth. He called such projects “irrelevant and incidental” to the state’s overall budget process in the long-term. 

“Our problem is not that we buy too many non-recurring projects, it is that we cannot resist spending every single dime of recurring revenue,” Perez said. “We pile more money on programs that can’t even manage to spend the money they already have. The beneficiaries of the state budget are the endless string of lobbyists and vendors who always have some shiny new thing for the state to buy that won’t actually improve the lives of Floridians.”

Perez applauded work by subcommittee chairs to “find real savings,” and said results of their work will be published Friday in the proposed House General Appropriations Act, which he said will likewise be historic.

“Our budget will not only be lower than the Governor’s proposed budget, it will also be lower than the budget passed by the Legislature last term. For the first time since the Great Recession, we will roll out a budget that actually spends less money than we did in the prior fiscal year,” Perez said. 

A Senate spokesperson said President Ben Albritton was made aware of the House plan prior to Perez’s announcement and that he “looks forward to reviewing the House proposal and budget in more detail later this week.”

“The Senate budget prioritizes broad-based tax relief, debt repayment, and reserves, while reducing per capita spending. The President has tremendous respect for the Speaker and looks forward to partnering with the House on a significant, broad-based tax relief package to make sure Florida families can keep more of the money they earn.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed a $116 billion budget and called for fiscal responsibility. Already, his budget, entitled “Focus on Fiscal Responsibility,” calls for an aggressive array of tax savings, though most are not recurring. He proposes the usual back-to-school tax holiday and tax holidays for disaster preparedness and “Freedom Month,” which provides tax breaks on summer outdoor activities and items, along with various events, museums and movie theater attendance. He also proposes a new “Second Amendment Summer” tax holiday on guns and ammo. Additionally, DeSantis wants to begin phasing out the state’s commercial rents sales tax, by dropping it to 1% in 2026 and then eliminating it altogether in 2027. 

“We often talk about how to improve affordability in Florida, and our strategies usually involve spending money on more government programs. But this year, we’ll try a novel concept – and make Florida more affordable by giving the people of Florida their own money back to them,” Perez concluded in his remarks. 

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The Florida Legislature is making notable strides toward improving information technology interoperability and coordination across state agencies — a move welcomed by the Florida Technology Council (FTC) as a key step toward a more connected, efficient, and modern government.

As digital needs continue to grow across all corners of government, the Legislature’s recent attention to IT collaboration and shared service models reflects a strong recognition of what agency leaders and technologists have long understood: to deliver modern, secure, and cost- effective public services, agencies must be empowered to work together — without sacrificing their independence.

Key to success: Flexibility, funding, and federated control

Florida is a federated state. Each agency has distinct missions, responsibilities, and operational structures. Recognizing this, the Council emphasizes that any statewide IT initiative must embrace flexibility at its core. Optimization at the enterprise does not require shifting from a federated approach to a consolidated form of government where the central authority holds all power and agencies are subordinate. Florida has the ability to empower — not constrain — while embracing enterprise initiatives.

Equally important is incentivizing participation — a concept that must go far beyond simple compliance. For state agencies, incentivization means receiving the tools, support, and resources needed to make meaningful engagement not just feasible but advantageous. This includes technical and staffing support that enables agencies to operate more efficiently, not less; investments that reduce, not increase, workloads; and solutions that lower long-term operational costs rather than introduce new financial burdens.

Participation in statewide IT initiatives must feel like an opportunity — not an obligation. Sustainability is more likely to be achieved when agencies are engaged and benefits are clear: enhanced capabilities, reduced duplication, easier access to enterprise tools, and the freedom to redirect saved time and resources toward mission-critical goals. In short, incentivizing participation means designing enterprise strategies that help agencies do their jobs better, faster, and more effectively — without disruptions, delays, or financial drain.

Toward a modern enterprise: Shared services and app optimization

The Council supports the Legislature’s growing interest in empowering our State CIO to deliver shared services, application optimization, and standardized best practices across the enterprise. When implemented correctly, these efforts can reduce costs, improve security, and accelerate innovation — while avoiding duplication of effort.

Clear authority and measurable progress

For any new enterprise approach to succeed, agencies need clear statutory authority and responsibility to act, required assessments, and regular progress reporting. Success hinges on defined goals, proper funding, and measurable outcomes.

Importantly, this effort must be approached as a multiyear initiative. Meaningful transformation takes time. A phased rollout allows thoughtful design, testing, and iteration to ensure long-term success without disrupting critical services.

The Florida Technology Council commends the Legislature for its forward-thinking leadership and pledges its continued support in helping Florida lead the nation in public sector IT modernization. By staying committed to agency flexibility, necessary funding, and long-term planning, Florida can build a more interoperable, resilient, and responsive state government for all, which is genuinely the goal our Legislature is seeking to achieve.

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James Taylor is CEO of the Florida Technology Council.

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Democrats and other critics slammed Republicans for trying to destroy the citizen-led constitutional amendment process during a House committee hearing.

“This bill, as currently written, really is just a death knell for the citizen-led ballot initiatives,” said Democrat Rep. Lindsay Cross.

Despite an hour of public testimony against HB 1205, the House State Affairs Committee advanced the bill in its final committee stop with a 17-7 party-line vote.

“Our citizen initiative petition process is broken, and we are the ones that must fix it,” argued Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, a Fort Myers Republican who sponsored the bill. “This process has been taken over by out-of-state fraudsters looking to make a quick buck and by special interest intent on buying their way into the constitution.”

The proposed changes to the ballot initiative process come after last year’s abortion rights initiative fell short of the 60% threshold to pass.

Amendment 4 became a target of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who accused the political committee sponsoring it of fraud. The Floridians Protecting Freedom (FPF) political action committee later paid a $164,000 settlement with the state over allegations that paid petition circulators submitted fraudulent petitions. FPF and Democrats said DeSantis went on a political witch hunt.

Now, Republicans are trying to change the requirements for future initiatives. HB 1205 would require citizen-led ballot initiatives to put down a $1 million bond, which Persons-Mulicka proposed must be paid once 25% of the needed signatures to get on the ballot are collected.

The bill’s changes include slashing the deadline so groups would need to submit petitions within 10 days of getting them signed, instead of the current 30-day window. It would also increase penalties and upgrade the criminal charges for groups that don’t follow the stricter rules.

One of the more interesting provisions in the bill also strikes back at DeSantis who, as the public face against last year’s abortion rights and legalized marijuana initiatives, reportedly spent millions of public dollars to fight them.

Republicans pushed back against the Governor and added a measure in the bill that would ban public funds spent on “communications” during constitutional amendments.

“Do you think it would prohibit some of the activity we saw this past session with the Office of the Governor using public funds — what they said were PSAs, but felt more like political ads?” asked Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani.

Persons-Mulicka declined to definitively answer the question saying, “I think there’s a lot of different factual scenarios and speculation that can be made.”

The committee also amended the bill to strip the state’s top economist as a voting member from the Financial Impact Estimating Conference.

Last year, the conference featured a political showdown pitting Florida economic chief Amy Baker against a DeSantis office representative and a Heritage Foundation staffer during the conference, as they debated putting a “financial impact statement” on the ballot next to the Amendment 4 abortion rights language. Baker lost as the lone dissenting vote.

“I would just say that the Office of Economic and Demographic Research will still be at the table. They still will have an advisory role. They still have an opinion. But with that being said, they need to be ex officio,” said Rep. Griff Griffitts, who filed the amendment. “I think it’s good policy.”

Democrats’ attempts to water down the bill failed Wednesday.

Cecile Scoon, Co-President of the League of Women Voters of Florida, argued that citizen-led initiatives take shape because the public is disappointed in the Legislature’s inaction.

“The only reason that they’re doing it is the citizens often feel that their elected officials are not listening to their needs,” she said. “They go to their elected officials and they say, ‘We need more money for our work. We need a minimum wage to be raised.’ Nothing is done, so the citizens take that on.”

The bill’s measures, especially shortening the timeline to submit petitions, would be “detrimental,” she said.

Republicans are dancing around the issue and masking their true intentions, argued Larry Colleton, a member of Orange County’s NAACP.

“You don’t want citizen initiatives. Just say that. Don’t pretend with this $1 million bond,” he said.

Added Democratic Rep. Debra Tendrich, “There is a big difference between restrictions and protections. We’ve kind of crossed that line from protecting our rights to creating additional restrictions and barriers.”

Republicans brushed off the opposition.

“I’m in favor of this good bill,” said Rep. Mike Caruso. “When we speak about ballot initiatives, we are speaking about our constitution, which is the foundation of Florida, and as a foundation, it should be strong. It should be solid and not be subject to the whims of the moment, like the shifting sands of our beaches.”

Rep. Meg Weinberger fought back as the bill’s critics said the public’s voice will be silenced if the measure passes.

“What amazes me about this process in the Legislature is that any citizen can bring an idea to the legislator and advocate for that idea to turn into law. So I think that some people are misinformed,” she said. “As far as the bill is, if you read it, if I’m correct, it’s really just protecting the petition process and the initiatives. It’s safeguarding from fraud.”

Florida Politics asked Lauren Brenzel, FPF’s former Campaign Director, if advocates were planning to sue if the bill passes this Session.

“We are going to continue to apply as much pressure as we can on the Legislature to stop this bill. It’s a bad bill,” she said during Wednesday’s press conference with the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.

“I know that after Legislative Session, depending on whether or not the bill passes, partners in the state will be looking for all available options available to them to make sure that they’re able to protect citizens’ rights to amend their Constitution.”

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