Announcements
MBAF September 2025 Legislative Update
Downtown Tallahassee remains quiet as the Legislature is not scheduled to return until the week of October 6th. Little has changed since the August update, with the exception that the Joint Legislative Budget Commission will issue a long-range financial outlook on September 15th, with recommended fiscal strategies for the Legislature to consider. Additionally, state agencies will also submit their Legislative Budget Requests on September 15th. We will be watching closely to see what clues both of those actions may tell us regarding whether the 2026 Legislature will need to be in cost-cutting mode.
Governor DeSantis and Chief Financial Officer Ingoglia continue their frequent press conferences that highlight audits of city and county government spending. DeSantis and Ingoglia are unified in their message that property taxes on homestead properties should be repealed. Both the House and Senate are expected to take up the issue of constitutional amendment property tax reductions in the 2026 Legislative Session.
MBAF August 2025 Legislative Update
With the “never-ending Session” finally over, the Florida Legislature is officially in vacation & conference mode, with a significant number of legislators attending national legislative conferences such as the National Conference of State Legislatures in Boston this week.
The House and Senate will return to Tallahassee for interim committee meetings the week of October 6th. There has been sparse legislative news with the exception that Senator Joe Gruters from Sarasota has been appointed by Senate President Ben Albritton as the Chairman of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee. This recent appointment was preceded by the appointment by Governor Ron DeSantis of Senator Blaise Ingoglia, the former Chairman of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, to become the new Chief Financial Officer of the State of Florida. CFO Ingoglia has hit the ground running with numerous DOGE-style audits of city and county governments, and of course is the newest member of the Financial Services Commission which leads the Office of Financial Regulation.
MBAF July 2025 Legislative Update
It’s over! The 2025 Legislative Session is over and the Governor has signed the budget and all of the bills that we were supporting. As you may recall, our last update was a “to be continued” message that the Legislature still had work to do and had extended the 60-day legislative session. In the end, the 60 days turned into 105 days - one of the longest legislative sessions in Florida history.
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We’ve already reported on the policy bills that passed earlier in Session regarding condominium reform (HB 913), My Safe Florida Condominium Pilot Program (HB 393), and Affordable Housing (SB 1730) in the information below. However, we were waiting on the tax package (HB 7031) and the General Appropriations Act (the State Budget - SB 2500) that the Legislature finally passed and the Governor has now approved.
In SB 2500 - State Budget, the Legislature FULLY FUNDED the SHIP ($71.2 million) and SAIL ($163.8 million) affordable housing programs. Hometown Heroes was funded at $50 million ($50 million less than last year), and My Safe Home Florida Home Hurricane Mitigation program was funded at $100 million (same as last year, but eligibility was revised to include income caps for all funds).
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In HB 7031- Tax Package, the Legislature created new property tax exemptions for affordable housing developments built on government land, repealed the business rent tax, and mandated that the Office of Economic and Demographic Research conduct a study of the property tax structure of Florida and the expenditure of property tax revenues by local governments. The purpose of the study is to analyze the potential impact of eliminating or significantly reducing ad valorem assessments on homestead property. The study must be completed by November 1, 2025.
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The Legislature will return to Tallahassee in October for interim committee meetings and will keep you up to date on any developments for the 2026 Legislative Session that begins in January.
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