- March 13, 2026
The Legislature on Thursday sent a bill (HB 7031) to Gov. Ron DeSantis that avoids linking the state’s tax code to the changes made by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress last year and signed by President Donald Trump.
The federal law carries significant tax cuts that, if applied to the state’s tax code, would have led to an up to $3.5 billion cut to state coffers, benefitting mostly large businesses.
In previous years GOP legislative leaders have opted to "piggyback" onto the federal tax code, saving businesses billions of dollars. But facing projected shortfalls in future years, lawmakers opted to ‘decouple’ from the federal law.
As House and Senate leaders continue to squabble over the budget, with House Speaker Daniel Perez saying he’s worried that spending too much will lead to shortfalls in future years, lawmakers decided the $3.5 billion hit was too much to absorb.
State economists have projected a surplus for the coming fiscal year, but shortfalls that rise nearly to $7 billion two years after that, if current spending trends continue. Moreover, those projections were made before the recent U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran that have convulsed world markets.
