The Budget Is the Message: How Florida’s House Declared War on DeSantis
We See What You're Doing
“A conservative is someone who stands athwart a budget yelling stop — or at the very least, ‘read the footnotes.’”
There’s a quiet civil war brewing in Tallahassee. Not the type with dramatic walkouts or veto overrides broadcast in prime time — no, this one is happening in budget spreadsheets and press releases. And the Florida House, led by Speaker Daniel Perez, wants you to think it just handed you a populist, freedom-loving, tax-cutting gift from heaven.
In reality? They just staged a coup against Governor DeSantis’s executive influence while dressing it up as “making Florida affordable.”
Let me be as direct as I can be. Cutting $6 billion from the previous budget and slicing Governor DeSantis’s proposal by $2.7 billion isn’t just “fiscal discipline” — it’s punishment with a smile. And it’s wrapped in the sort of sanctimonious pageantry that would make any populist strategist swoon: big green numbers, arrows pointing down, words like "wasteful," "permanent relief," and "back to Floridians."
But if you listen closely, the dog whistles are less about conservatism and more about control.
“Tax dollars don’t belong to the government. They belong to the people.” – Daniel Perez
Yes, and presumably those people all live in House districts held by compliant GOP supermajority members.
The Illusion of Relief
The headline: a permanent sales tax reduction from 6.00% to 5.25%. Sounds generous. But here’s the problem: sales taxes are regressive. Poor and middle-income Floridians already spend a greater share of their income on consumption than wealthier households. So a 0.75% drop looks great, but if you’re struggling to afford rent, groceries, or childcare, it amounts to table scraps—roughly $375 per year for a family spending $50,000 on taxable goods. That’s $31/month. You’d save more money cutting one streaming service.
What’s worse, the real intent behind this sales tax maneuver isn’t about helping working families—it’s about blocking the political oxygen needed for actual reform. By making the sales tax permanent and tying state revenues to consumption, lawmakers make it functionally impossible to cut or replace Florida’s property taxes—which is where the real burden lies for residents. I break this strategy down more fully in this article here if you want the deeper dive on how this "relief" locks in structural regressivity.
What this really is: a budget-engineered applause line that comes at the cost of long-term resiliency. And how do they pay for this “relief”? Cuts to executive capacity. Cuts to infrastructure growth. And—this is the kicker—a budget that still includes massive reserves ($12 billion!) which means they could have kept funding crucial services and given relief. They just didn’t want the Governor to be the one who got credit.
The Coup in the Budget: What They Don’t Want You to See”
Let’s talk about what’s really happening.
This isn’t just fiscal maneuvering — it’s political warfare. The Florida House is attempting to neuter the Governor’s power ahead of 2026. Make no mistake: Casey DeSantis, a likely gubernatorial contender, represents the continuation of executive philosophy that the legislature is preparing to outflank. So they’re stripping the Governor’s office budget, constraining executive influence, and claiming the moral high ground while they do it.
They fund Democrat-favored housing programs (Hometown Heroes, affordable housing) to neutralize talking points. They throw money at “My Safe Florida Home” as a nod to moderates, while zeroing out DEI to satisfy the red meat crowd. It's not governance. It's preemptive electoral positioning.
Here’s what they won’t tell you: