2025 Legislative Session Ends With $115B Budget

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida lawmakers closed the 2025 legislative session late Monday, ending an extended lawmaking period focused on key budget and policy issues. The outcome included a series of legislative wins for Realtors®, property owners and communities, from eliminating the business rent tax to allocating millions for home and condo hardening efforts.

Lawmakers approved a $115.1 billion budget for the next fiscal year – $3.5 billion less than the budget for the current fiscal year – and sent it to Gov. Ron DeSantis, more than six weeks past the scheduled May 2 session end. The governor must approve the budget by signing it into law and holds the power to veto individual bills and budget line items. The budget will take effect on July 1, the beginning of the 2025-2026 fiscal year.

“Here we are at the end of the long and winding road,” House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, said as the House convened Monday.

Some of the legislative victories were Florida Realtors®' 2025 legislative priorities:

• Total elimination of Florida's Business Rent Tax (BRT)
• $50 million for the Hometown Heroes Housing Program
• $310 million in new and unused funds to help Floridians harden their homes and condominiums
• $385 million for state and local affordable housing programs
• $1.5 billion for water quality and restoration projects
• Bringing additional transparency to transactions involving condominium units
• Protecting the private property rights of commercial building and short-term rental owners dealing with squatters
• Preserving and protecting the natural wonders of our state parks
• Eliminating the negative consequences of lookback periods
• Increasing the transparency of flood risks for long-term renters, as well as purchasers of condominiums, cooperatives and mobile home park lots
• Helping landlords and tenants communicate through optional electronic notices

Florida Realtors 2025 President Tim Weisheyer said, “The new state budget, combined with our earlier legislative victories, have resulted in a tremendously successful legislative session, and I can’t thank Realtors enough for lending their voice and their time to advocate on behalf of their profession.”

Lawmakers also approved a package that requires sales tax holidays for back-to-school items and also for hurricane supplies.

The budget includes $580 million to pay down state debt and a separate bill that requires an annual $250 million repayment of state bonds. The spending plan also includes an increase in per-student funding in schools from $8,987.67 to $9,130.41.

In addition, the Legislature advanced a proposed constitutional amendment that would set aside $750 million a year — or an amount equal to up to 25% of the state’s general revenue, whichever is less — into a reserve fund that lawmakers could only use for emergencies. The measure has to be approved by 60% of Florida voters to be implemented.

“We are doing this so that we are truly prepared for a break-the-glass situation,” Republican House Budget Committee Chair Lawrence McClure said.

The News Service of Florida and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

© 2025 Florida Realtors®