Budget Special Session to run May 12-May 26

Lawmakers landed at a joint allocation number of $51.98 billion, per a just-released message from Senate President Ben Albritton's Office.

The Special Session dates have been set for work on the budget, with conference committees meeting May 12-15, "at which point unresolved issues will bump and Senators can return to their districts," the memo reads.

"Senators should plan to return to Tallahassee the week after Memorial Day to vote on the conference report."

Sen. Ed Hooper will, of course, chair the budget conference committee.

More on conference committee chairs -

As for other conference committee posts, Sen. Jason Brodeur will chair both the Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee and the State Administration Committee.

Sen. Ileana Garcia will chair the Criminal and Civil Justice Committee, with Sen. Jay Trumbull leading the health care silo.

Sen. Gayle Harrell will be out front on higher education, with Sen. Danny Burgess running point on PreK-12. And Sen. Nick DiCeglie will be the TED Chair.

Joint allocations breakdown -

As for the numbers themselves, Health Care / Health and Human Services is the largest silo, with $19.2 billion slotted.

Next is PreK-12 Education at $16.2 billion, followed by Criminal and Civil Justice at $6.96 billion and Higher Education at $6.68 billion.

Agriculture and Environment is next up, at $1.38 billion. Rounding out the list are State Administration / General Government at $568 million, Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development at $560 million, and Administered Funds & Statewide Issues at $476 million.

That brings the total to $51.98 billion.

More from the Senate President -

President Albritton laid out the goals of the work ahead, noting that the budget will land below the total approved for this fiscal year. "As with the budget passed off the Senate Floor, our final budget will be lower than Florida's state budget for the current fiscal year, facilitating long-term financial stability and continuing our focus on keeping taxes low, paying down debt and saving for the future," he said in his Thursday memo.