Gov. Ron DeSantis has released a $117 billion budget proposal.
It's around $2 billion larger than the current fiscal year's budget, including increased pay for law enforcement officers and teachers.
It would also transfer the University of South Florida's Sarasota-Manatee campus to New College, the university where DeSantis launched a conservative takeover. This is despite a state audit finding the school is far outspending others in the state while having low graduate outcome rankings.
But whether any of that comes to pass is in the legislature's hands. Now the Senate and the House have to put forward their own proposals.
To do so, the chambers look at revenue forecasts, agency funding requests, as well as what the governor wants.
The Legislature won't have complete proposals off the bat.
Different appropriation committees will have to approve different spending sections, like for education, agriculture and criminal justice.
It doesn't necessarily get easier once the chambers have their budgets.
"In the end, both the House and the Senate have to pass the exact same budget," said Aubrey Jewett, a UCF political science professor. "It has to be exactly the same in terms of the total amount and in terms of all the specific amounts within all those different areas."
Last session, the chambers couldn't get their plans to match, stretching the process deep into the summer.
If the budget isn't law by July 1, the state government enters into a partial shutdown, which has never happened.
"There is a whole lot about the Florida Legislature and the Florida Constitution, but when push comes to shove, there's only one specific thing that the Florida Legislature has to do every year constitutionally, and that's pass a budget," Jewett said.
If 2026 is a normal year, the budget can be expected to be passed by the end of the legislative session in mid-March.
It then goes to the governor, who can issue line-item spending vetoes. DeSantis typically cuts hundreds of millions of dollars in mostly local projects.
The Legislature can override budget vetoes, though, as happened earlier this year.
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This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
