ORLANDO, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke Wednesday in downtown Orlando, announcing his proposals for a $117.36 billion 2026-27 state budget.
With a proposed General-Revenue portion of $53.22 billion, $16.75 billion in total reserves and such other provisions as a repeat 2nd Amendment Sales Tax Holiday next fall, the governor’s office says the latest budget partly reflects the equivalent of $850 million in savings from “ongoing DOGE efficiency efforts.”
Florida state government continues to operate efficiently, maintaining the lowest number of employees per capita among the five most populous states. Following extensive budget reviews across state agencies, and ongoing DOGE efficiency efforts, the Governor’s Budget proposes the elimination of 354 positions. Net position reductions under the Governor’s tenure will have reached nearly 1,000, even as Florida’s population has grown by just over 10 percent.
"Overview, debt reduction and reserves"
The governor talked at length about the money he wants set aside for education items, such as $30.6 billion overall for K-12, $1.7 billion for early-child education, almost $2 billion for the state college system, $4 billion for the state university system, a fully-funded Bright Futures scholarship program and $1.56 billion for teacher-pay increases, up from $1.36 billion last year.
Regarding teacher pay, DeSantis again spoke harshly of teachers’ unions and accused some school districts of using educator salaries as “bargaining chips.”
”People would say, you know, ‘Pay teachers more,’ so the legislature would do more education spending, it goes down to the districts and then magically it gets spent on everything pretty much but that, right? So we said, ‘All right, you’re not just going to send money; so, we’re going to do a pot of money (for teacher pay), that’s the only thing you can use it for,’" DeSantis said.
In response, the statewide Florida Education Association union called on state legislators to “right the ship” and “pass a budget that strengthens our schools so every child can have the education and future they deserve.”
Despite Florida ranking 45th in the nation in per-student funding and 50th in the nation in average teacher pay, the Governor’s budget offers little to address the waste and abuse of education funding. In fact, instead of fixing these failures, his budget doubles down on them, continuing to support policies that divert billions of taxpayer dollars into the hands of unelected private interests while leaving public schools and their students behind. And while the Governor continues to tout “record” investments in educator pay, the lived experiences of educators tell a different story. Eight years of broken promises have left them in a financial crisis, struggling to afford rent, homeowners’ insurance, groceries, healthcare, childcare, and other basic day-to-day expenses. This story is all too familiar for many Floridians who know it’s far more expensive to live in Florida now, under the Governor’s leadership, than before he took office.
Florida Education Association statement 12/10/25 (excerpt)
DeSantis again promised future action on property taxes, saying the state legislature was “working on some good stuff” and pointing to the growth of and taxes paid by commercial and non-homestead property owners as potentially being enough to offset an absence of homestead property taxes.
“We want to make sure that the taxpayers are getting breaks rather than have more spending, but put that aside, there’s some communities, some counties, that are fiscally constrained. We have 32 of them and they’re more rural and they don’t have the economic engine that an Orlando has, or that a South Florida has, or a Tampa or a Jacksonville," DeSantis said. “I’ve put in the budget — and I’m not saying it’s even going to be necessary — but I put in the budget enough money to completely, 100%, reimburse any homestead-property tax reduction for those fiscally-constrained counties.”
DeSantis was joined at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts by Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas, Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Executive Director Dave Kerner and Florida State Guard Executive Director Mark Thieme.
The state’s 2025-26 budget, which DeSantis signed in June, came out to $117.4 billion after vetoes despite being referred to as a $115.1 billion budget during the signing ceremony.
Watch the news conference again in the video player below or by clicking here.
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