TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – State budget talks won’t resume until after the Memorial Day holiday weekend, legislative leaders announced Thursday.

In a memo to senators, Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, said that he and Senate Appropriations Chairman Ed Hooper, R-Trinity, “have continued to have productive discussions with our partners in the House on joint budget allocations.”

Allocations are overall amounts of money that would be divided in different areas of the budget, such as education, health and transportation, and need to be set before conference committees can begin formally negotiating details of the state spending plan.

“I believe we are making progress; however, we are not in a position to begin budget conference next week,” Albritton wrote Thursday, adding that the Senate would not return to Tallahassee before May 25.

House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, issued a brief memo advising that House members also won’t need to return to the Capitol prior to the holiday weekend but did not provide details about discussions with the Senate.

The leaders said they would give legislators an update mid-week.

Perez and Albritton on May 2 announced that they had reached a “framework” for the budget that would include $2.8 billion in tax cuts, including reducing the sales-tax rate. They extended the regular legislative session, which was supposed to end May 2, through June 6.

But behind-the-scenes talks blew up last week, with Perez accusing Albritton of backing out of the agreement on the budget framework, leading to a standoff over a tax package and a budget that must be completed by the July 1 start of the 2025-2026 fiscal year.

DeSantis, meanwhile, has called for a one-time $1,000 rebate to homesteaded property owners that would serve as a prelude to asking voters in 2026 to lower property taxes.

The House held a brief session Tuesday to extend the potential end date of this year’s legislative session, passing a resolution that would allow the session to continue as late as June 30. The Senate would have to agree for the session to be extended that long.

Perez said Tuesday the House has offered possibilities to the Senate including a “lean, critical-needs budget with minimal spending and no tax cuts.”

Perez told reporters that he doesn’t think lawmakers are at risk of a government shutdown but also noted the talks aren’t “any closer than we were a few weeks ago”

In a memo last week, Albritton said senators raised concerns that a cut in the sales-tax rate would not be “meaningful, felt, or seen by families and seniors when compared with other available options.”

He alluded to the Senate’s spending position in Tuesday’s memo.

“I understand the week-to-week updates are challenging for long-term planning. Our goal is to bring the allocations discussion to a conclusion and announce a schedule for the budget conference as quickly and responsibly as possible, keeping in mind the priorities you are expecting Chair Hooper and I to advocate for in our budget,” Albritton wrote.

Albritton appeared with DeSantis during a bill-signing event Thursday in Dade City. The governor, who has railed against the proposed sales-tax rate reduction, continued to criticize the House for not being “consistent with what the voters sent them to do,” while saying he has “worked well” with the Senate president.

“I think (Albritton’s) somebody that is trying to do the best he can, to represent his constituents, to obviously manage his caucus, and then ultimately, to do what’s best for Florida,” DeSantis said. “And I think that’s the way, you know, it should be done.”