Days after the Senate proposed its budget for consideration, House Speaker Danny Perez unveiled the fiscal plan prepared by his chamber.

The budget is $112.95 billion, about $4.4 billion below the Senate’s proposed budget and $2.7 billion less than Gov. Ron DeSantis’s proposal. Perez said the fiscally hawkish budget would cut wasteful spending and help everyday Floridians by slashing state sales taxes.

“So often when politicians talk about improving affordability, our strategies involve spending money on more government programs. We have forgotten a fundamental truth; tax dollars don’t belong to the government, they belong to the people,” Perez said.

“This year, we’re flipping the script by giving the people of Florida their own money back to them. This budget reflects our chamber’s values of conservative fiscal stewardship and accountability. This budget also reflects decisive action to rein in recurring spending and refocus on the true needs of everyday Floridians. By reducing unnecessary expenditures and cutting wasteful spending, we are ensuring that taxpayers see more of their dollars at work for them — and back in their pockets, too.”

The signature tax savings in the House budget come from cutting the state sales tax from a current 6% to 5.25%. But that approach differs from what DeSantis has called for or that Senate President Ben Albritton has endorsed. DeSantis has pushed for the elimination of Florida property taxes, a different approach, while the Senate has only said it’s open to considering structural tax change at some point.

As for spending, the House budget wants to put $12 billion back to state reserves.

The budget provides $100 million for “veteran teachers” after years of DeSantis pushing to increase starting pay to recruit new teachers. The budget fully funds Bright Futures and increases per student investment by an additional $60, and sets aside $765 million for maintenance and capital programs supporting education from kindergarten through undergraduate higher education.

The environmental budget sets aside $300 million for rural and family land conservation, $200 million for the Resilient Florida Conservation grand program and $600 million for drinking water initiatives.

In justice spending, the budget provides $55 million for facility repairs and maintenance and another $14 million for county and circuit judges and pay adjustments for State Attorneys’ and Public Defenders’ offices.

House appropriators include $285 million for affordable housing programs and the Hometown Hero housing program, which assists first-time homebuyers with startup costs.

Meanwhile, the budget preserves KidCare and Medicaid funding and backs up 81% of the costs of an Intellectual Development Disabilities Pilot program.

The budget comes in $6 billion under the current budget year.

“Our subcommittee chairs and members have worked tirelessly to scrutinize every dollar in this budget, identifying real savings and making responsible choices for the future of our state,” said House Budget Chair Lawrence McClure, a Dover Republican.

“For the first time since the Great Recession, this budget will spend less than the previous year’s – an unprecedented step toward restoring true fiscal discipline. As a part of that commitment, we are taking a firm stance against DEI initiatives by ensuring that every entity receiving state funds upholds Florida’s values of individual freedom and equal opportunity rather than promoting divisive ideological agendas. Special interests may claim otherwise, but the truth is clear: We are prioritizing the needs of Floridians above all else. This is a budget that truly puts the people first.”

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Across the state of Florida, stores sell drinks containing THC, sometimes marketing the good as “legal weed,” even though they are infused with hemp instead.

“In my hometown, I have a store that I drive by frequently with one of those signs out front that tells me I don’t need an ID card there,” Sen. Colleen Burton, a Lakeland Republican, said at a Senate Fiscal Policy Committee.

Burton will introduce legislation (SB 438) this week that would regulate what hemp products can be sold on Florida shelves and exactly how the goods can be marketed to the public.

The bill so far coasted through the Senate Agriculture and Fiscal Policy committees with unanimous support. But Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a similar legislative package last year, leaving the future of this year’s hemp bill decidedly uncertain.

The Governor wrote in a veto message last year that regulations on the burgeoning hemp market would “impose debilitating regulatory burdens” on Florida retailers. Many of them spoke out against the legislation this year in Committee.

But the Florida Senate has soldiered on, in bipartisan fashion, with its efforts to regulate a market that today faces far fewer rules than Florida’s medical marijuana industry, despite selling some products with a high concentration of THC, Burton said.

The Florida Senate expects to take up the bill on the floor on Tuesday. A House companion (SB 1597) hasn’t been heard in Committee yet but could draw primarily on work finalized in the upper chamber this week.

Sen. Tracie Davis, a Jacksonville Democrat who co-sponsored Burton’s bill, said the concerns of the Governor and numerous retailers opposing the bill should mellow out about the prospect of rules.

“We are not going to decimate any small business,” Davis said. “We are not going to put a business out because of this. You are not going to close your doors because of the regulatory framework that we are going to put in place.”

But plenty of store owners feel anxiety about the potential of legislation. Sarah Lee Brian, a co-founder of Sunmed, owns multiple retail locations selling CBD products, including storefronts in Burton’s hometown of Lakeland. She said her company would embrace a regulatory environment if done right, but she spoke out in Committee against the legislation as written.

“We are against synthetics. They are terrible for you,” Brian said. “There’s nothing more beautiful than nature. God made plants. Hemp is one of them.”

As it reads now, the Senate bill significantly changes Florida’s hemp program. It requires hemp extracts to be tested by a certified medical marijuana laboratory instead of any independent lab to determine if the goods meet state hemp definitions. The product could be sold in Florida so long as it was free of unsafe contents but would have labeling requirements that accurately reflect its concentration of THC and cannabidiol.

As for THC-infused products, only businesses also licensed to sell alcohol could sell them, but the products could not contain alcohol themselves. The products could not be marketed to children with attractive packaging, such as displaying toys, and the packaging could not resemble other well-known food brands, such as gummy bears, typically marketed to children.

The bill also sets definitions of hemp and THC-infused goods in statute. Hemp products cannot contain more than 5 milligrams per serving or 50 milligrams per container, whichever is less. A THC-infused beverage may not contain more than 5 milligrams per unopened can or bottle or in any other sealed container.

Businesses that can sell such products could not advertise their availability in signage visible from the street or in parks and public settings. Retailers cannot market the product using brand logos or sell it as having some unproven health benefit. The bill also has language barring sellers from inferring a relationship with a medical marijuana provider.

Several Senators in the Committee said the state needs to act partly because the hemp market promised when Florida approved a program hasn’t materialized as imagined. Sen. Keith Truenow, a Tavares Republican and veteran sod farmer, noted hemp was pushed in 2018 as an alternative crop for Florida producers. Still, only three acres of hemp crops are currently being grown, meaning most hemp-infused goods rely on out-of-state sources.

Meanwhile, Sen. Rosalind Osgood, a Broward Democrat, voiced fears that an inebriating product is on Florida shelves that can exploit addicts without a complete public education about the health and intoxicating effects. A recovering drug addict herself, Osgood said that’s begging for someone to be hurt.

“For people like me, it’s extremely dangerous and can trigger my disease,” she said. “And when I think about children and having these gummy products that look like candy, and the danger and the potential danger, we’ve had reports of kids overdosing because they think it’s candy and they take two or three.”

Senate Majority Leader Jim Boyd, a Bradenton Republican, expressed frustration that the bill was vetoed last year.

“Let’s have the right products and the appropriate products with the guardrails that should apply on the shelves of the stores,” Boyd said.

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