The Florida Senate Appropriations Committee on Budget Day adopted SPB 2,500, the Senate's proposed general appropriations bill for fiscal year 2025'26, totaling $117,400,000,000.

Committee Chair Hooper opened the session and, after budget presentations by committee chairs, put the bill on a committee vote. "The Senate budget totals $117,400,000,000. It's a fiscally responsible budget that reduces overall spending compared to our last year's budget," Chair Hooper said during opening remarks.

The bill as introduced included a 4% across-the-board pay raise for state employees and targeted increases for state law enforcement and firefighters; the budget also preserves employee contributions for health care at current levels. Senators responsible for each "silo" summarized their funding recommendations: Senator Burgess reported a preK–12 allocation that raises the FEFP and creates a separate categorical for family empowerment scholarships; Senator Harrell outlined higher education workforce investments and a $250 million allocation to the Board of Governors; Senator Trumbull described an $1.8 billion increase in the health and human services budget with Medicaid, mental health and workforce elements; Senator Garcia discussed corrections, juvenile justice, and court operations funding; and Senator Bridal summarized $1.2 billion for water quality and extensive environment and agriculture investments.

Committee members adopted a consent calendar of 68 timely-filed amendments, then approved three late-file amendments that redirected $350,000 each to new or shifted purposes (virtual college tours, an FSU genetics program, and a customs facility at Port of Fernandina). After amendment votes, Chair Hooper called the roll and the committee adopted SPB 2,500 as amended.

Committee members also advanced a set of implementing and conforming measures that the Senate said are necessary to execute the General Appropriations Act. Those included SPB 2,502 (implementing bill), SPB 2,504 (state employees placeholder), SPB 2,506 (natural resources distribution changes), SPB 2,508 (certification of new judgeships), and silo-specific conforming bills for preK–12 (SPB 2,510), higher education (SPB 2,512), and health and human services (SPB 2,514), each of which the committee reported favorably during the same session.

Why it matters: Committee leaders said the Senate position emphasizes reserve strengthening and targeted investments in workforce programs, education infrastructure and water quality while separating scholarship funding into stand-alone accounting to improve transparency.

Votes at a glance: The committee voted to adopt/report favorably on the following measures (committee action shown): SPB 2,500 (General Appropriations Act) ' adopted as amended; SPB 2,502 (implementing statutory changes) ' reported favorably; SPB 2,504 (state employees placeholder) ' reported favorably; SPB 2,506 (natural resources/gaming compact distributions) ' reported favorably; SPB 2,508 (new judgeships certification) ' reported favorably; SPB 2,510 (preK'12 conforming) ' reported favorably; SPB 2,512 (higher education conforming) ' reported favorably; SPB 2,514 (health and human services conforming) ' reported favorably. Several other related budget and statutory conformity bills were also reported favorably during the session.

The committee chair instructed staff to make technical/conforming corrections before the measures proceed to subsequent floor action. The committee adjourned after completing the budget-related portion of the agenda.

Lesser details: The committee heard brief procedural explanation of how the consent agenda would be handled, the barcodes of individual amendments were read into the record, and some members reserved the right to press differences in conference with the House over the treatment of vacant FTE positions. Several senators asked questions during the chairmen's presentations about program details, including how scholarship money would be distributed and whether AP/dual-enrollment funding changes would reduce district flexibility. Those topics were later taken up in the committee's education conforming bill and in a separate bill that the committee considered (CS for SB 7,030).