TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida lawmakers have passed the halfway point of the 2025 legislative session. And as budget talks ramp up, the chambers remain more than $4 billion apart — and a public beef between the governor and GOP house speaker on tax cuts continues.

While budget talks continue this week, Capitol leaders say they maintain the same goal: cutting state spending. However, they have varying ideas on how to get there with project budget shortfalls on the horizon.

“My expectation is that when it’s all said and done, we will have a great budget. It will be focused on Floridians, and it will be good,” Senate President Ben Albritton (R-Wauchula) told reporters last week.

Part of the difference in budget between the Senate and House plans right now is a proposed $5 billion revenue loss from a House-proposed cut of the state sales tax rate.

Albritton has been playing peacemaker, saying lawmakers plan on reviewing the proposal as House Speaker Daniel Perez (R-Miami) faces the public ire of Governor Ron DeSantis. 

“They got to be obstructionists, they gotta be different,” DeSantis said about the Republican super-majority in the House.

Over the past few weeks, the governor has taken to X posting videos where he derides the speaker and some of the proposals the chamber has been advancing this session. 

“It is an embarrassment to the state of Florida. It’s an embarrassment to the Republican Party,” the governor said in one of his posts. 

It’s a continuation of a public spat that began over immigration enforcement policy and the calling of a special session earlier this year to address it.

Speaker Perez downplayed the ongoing battle to reporters last week and said his door is always open to talk policy with the executive office.

“We are all on the same team, we are all Republicans, we are all a part of the success the state of Florida has had, but for some reason [the governor] has been a bit emotional over the last couple days,” Perez said, adding he believes his tax cut proposal would be a historic win for Floridians.

Meantime, based on the numbers, Democratic state lawmakers are largely sidelined in passing proposals, but party leaders have praised Perez and House Republicans for recent actions.

“{We‘re] actually excited that House Republicans have taken an interest in holding the executive agencies accountable,” House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa) said in a press call Monday, applauding what’s been viewed as the chamber taking back autonomy after largely placating the governor’s wishes over his first six years in office.

Democrats are still raising concerns over some of the significant cuts being proposed in the budget, including the elimination of thousands of state employees.

“I just don’t see how you can cut state revenues and lose federal money and still offer Floridians the responsive, efficient state government they still need and deserve,” Driskell added.

The House and Senate are expected to formally pass their respective budget plans this week. It is the only legislation lawmakers are required to reach an agreement on before the end of the session on May 2.