Florida's $115B Budget Deal Heads to Friday Vote, With School Funds and Everglades Dollars at Stake for Treasure Coast

Florida lawmakers finalized a nearly $115 billion state budget late Sunday night and scheduled a Friday vote that will determine funding flows to Treasure Coast school districts, Everglades restoration projects, and rural farmland preservation programs across Martin and Indian River counties.

The agreement — reached in a special session for the second consecutive year after the Legislature failed to pass a budget during its regular session, which ended March 13 — splits the difference between the Senate's larger spending target and the House's preferred $113.6 billion plan. The budget takes effect July 1.

Martin County Emergency Management Director John Ferrante and school district finance officers across the three-county region should take particular note of the education provisions, which carry direct implications for local classroom budgets and property tax calculations.

On education, the deal preserves $4.5 billion for scholarships funding homeschool and private school tuition — keeping that allocation inside the main per-pupil formula for K-12 public schools rather than carved out separately, as the Senate had sought. The budget also contains a protective provision preventing deep cuts to school districts experiencing enrollment declines, a safeguard that carries real weight on the Treasure Coast, where district population shifts have created budget pressure in recent years. Two counties elsewhere in Florida — Union and Glades — were placed under emergency administration after enrollment drops threatened their financial solvency. Lawmakers moved explicitly to prevent that scenario from spreading.

For the environment, the final deal allocates $514 million for Everglades restoration projects. Gov. Ron DeSantis had threatened to veto any budget that failed to adequately fund those efforts. House budget chief Rep. Lawrence McClure, R-Dover, said the figure should satisfy that demand. "$514 million is well above the statutory minimum. It is a lot of money and should continue the Everglades restoration efforts," McClure said. The budget also sets aside $425 million for the Rural and Family Lands program, which purchases agricultural easements to keep working farmland in Martin and Indian River counties out of the path of developers.

In health care, lawmakers secured $75 million for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program after federal funding cuts forced HIV patients in the program to seek private insurance coverage to obtain their medications. A Cancer Innovation Fund championed by First Lady Casey DeSantis was funded at $20 million, a compromise between the Senate's preferred $30 million and the House's initial refusal to fund it at all.

The state will also distribute $4.5 million in grants to county supervisors of elections statewide to fund software or hardware for post-election audits — a line item with direct recipients in Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River counties.

The Legislature plans to approve the budget Friday and send it to DeSantis for his signature.

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