TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis had a tight grip on the Senate for six years. On the second-to-last day of his term, that is not the case.

DeSantis used to be on the same side as top politicians on a wide range of issues, from gun rights and parental rights to abortion and DEI programs. These raised DeSantis’s image across the country before he ran for president but lost in 2024.

This year, the Republican governor wanted to follow through on President Trump’s immigration plans, get rid of state property taxes, and fix the condo problem in South Florida. Instead, his power decreased as other Republicans openly disobeyed his orders and even raised concerns about how he ran state agencies.

The Legislature ended its session late Friday night without having a budget ready for DeSantis to sign. DeSantis has the power of the line-item veto, which means he can only accept certain spending items in a budget package. Lawmakers said they have a plan for a budget, so they extended the session until early June. It needs to be signed by the governor before the fiscal year starts on July 1.

The resistance is a whole new problem for the governor, whose term ends soon and who might want to run for president in 2028. DeSantis has also been getting more angry at lawmakers, calling them the “House of Pettiness.”

Here are some important things that didn’t always go DeSantis’ way:

Lawmakers went against DeSantis on immigration

In January, Republican lawmakers started and then ended right away a special session that DeSantis called to talk about Trump’s immigration plan. They were determined to solve the problem in their own way, so they went back to the meeting, threw out the governor’s ideas, and then offered their own.

In past years, the reprimand to DeSantis would not have been possible.

After a weeks-long standoff, the governor finally signed immigration measures that were reached through negotiations. These measures went beyond Trump’s executive orders by requiring the death sentence for illegal immigrants who commit capital crimes in Florida.

Looking into the main project of the Florida first lady

A Florida House subcommittee began a probe of Hope Florida, a project by First Lady Casey DeSantis.

At first, it was mostly about a $10 million gift to the Hope Florida Foundation as part of a $67 million settlement between a state agency and Centene Corporation, which is the biggest Medicaid contractor in the state.

DeSantis had asked lawmakers to set up a Hope Florida Office that would be run by the governor. This would have helped the first lady’s main goal before the 2026 election, when she is likely to run against her husband for governor.

Instead, DeSantis has spent weeks criticising lawmakers’ investigations into the initiative. She said that lawmakers were shining a bad light on the initiative to “attack the first lady.”

The head of the state subcommittee, Rep. Alex Andrade, said on April 24 that the investigation was over and that he was “firmly convinced” that several people were involved in misusing $10 million in Medicaid funds.

A budget that doesn’t do what DeSantis wants it to do

In February, the governor asked lawmakers to look at his own budget plan, which called for $115.6 billion.

The plan included key measures such as $505 million for immigration enforcement and $1.5 billion for Everglades restoration and water quality projects. It also got rid of the business rent tax and gave more sales tax breaks, among other things, which saved $2.2 billion in taxes.

The Senate and the House still haven’t agreed on a budget, though. Speaker of the House Daniel Perez told members that they would be back in June to finish approving the budget before it goes into effect in July.

The Senate wants to spend $117.4 billion, but the House wants a smaller budget of $113 billion. One of the most important parts of the House bill is a 0.75% cut to the sales tax, which DeSantis has criticised. Instead, he wants to lower the state’s property taxes. That sales tax cut is not in the Senate plan.

During the month of April, DeSantis frequently criticised the House for having different ideas on the budget, whether it was about fixing up the Everglades, giving money to the police, or cutting taxes.

At a news conference in Fort Myers on April 16, DeSantis said, “They are the least productive Florida House of Representatives that we have had in the brief history of the Florida Republican Party.”

Problems with expensive condos

It was planned that the first special session on immigration in January would also talk about condo problems, since owners are having to deal with higher association fees and property insurance rates. Instead, lawmakers worked on these parts of the bill in the last few weeks of the session.

Because associations are expected by law to have enough money saved for major repairs, condo owners have had to pay more since the Surfside condo collapse in 2022. The law also says that areas must be surveyed every ten years.

Lawmakers wanted to ease some of these price increases for apartment owners this session. These increases mostly affect people who live in South Florida and retirees on fixed incomes. The bill was sent to the governor on Wednesday. It will let condo associations use lines of credit to fund reserves and give members more options for pausing payments to their reserves while they take care of repairs and maintenance.

In the weeks before the bill was passed, the House and Senate put forward two different versions. The governor was very critical of the House version. DeSantis said in April that the House bill would “push people out of their homes” and “make it easier for developers to make more money.”

As for the House version, DeSantis said, “Let’s admit that these results are not what we want, and let’s make changes so that people can stay in their condos.”