ORLANDO, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis presented on Wednesday his $117 billion budget proposal for fiscal year 2026-2027.
DeSantis presented his budget in a news conference in Orlando, where he highlighted that his proposal comes “from a position of fiscal strength.” He also said the proposed $117 billion budget includes about $17 billion in reserves.
Watch DeSantis’ budget presentation in the video player above
A key element of the governor’s budget proposal is education.
According to DeSantis, his budget allocates $1.56 billion “solely” for teacher pay increases.
“This proposal today is the biggest by far. And I can tell you, people that have followed this stuff, if we were here, you know, four or five years ago and someone said, ‘yeah, they’re going to end up doing 1.56 billion for teacher salaries,’ people would say that’s not feasible,” DeSantis said. “We’ve shown it’s possible. We’ve gotten it done.”
DeSantis said the overall budget for K-12 education is $30.6 billion, with an additional $1.7 billion for early childhood education.
The budget also includes $2 billion for the state college system and $4 billion for the state university system.
The governor also emphasized that his proposal includes “major” pay raises for law enforcement and the continuation of the bonus program.
“We’re going to do a $5,000 bonus for new recruits. And that could mean you move from Chicago, could also mean you come out of school and you want to go into law enforcement. You can get it even as a Floridian for that if it’s your first law enforcement gig. So that’s been really effective,” DeSantis said.