DeSantis budget vetoes hit some critical GOP lawmakers

Miami Herald

16 hours ago

Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed about $567 million in projects from the state budget Monday, including millions of dollars in initiatives sponsored by Republican lawmakers who challenged his administration.
In the final hours before the state's spending plan took effect, DeSantis made cuts across the state: $14 million for a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office aircraft hangar, $1.2 million to investigate homeowners association fraud in Miami-Dade and more than $4.5 million for affordable housing initiatives in various counties.
He cut another $5.7 million in funding for public radio and television stations, along with $3.1 million in pay raises for public defenders.
On top of the local projects, he axed $200 million to purchase land for Florida's wildlife corridor, and another $1 million that would have gone to studying property tax relief.
'I think what you see in the budget is an example of a very fiscally responsible state,' DeSantis said during a Monday news conference in the Villages. 'We're meeting the needs of the state of Florida that I think most people want us to be focusing on.'
The budget still preserves pay raises for state employees, teachers and police, and $28 million for a farmer food share program. The state's affordable housing trust funds also remained untouched, at about $235 million.
It also includes $830 million to pay down state debt ahead of schedule, a DeSantis priority.
'We're not, you know, frittering it away on something,' DeSantis said of the spending.
House Republicans were hit
After the most contentious legislative session in DeSantis' history, state lawmakers were bracing for the governor to use more ink than usual with the veto pen.
That ire appears to have been trained on just a few lawmakers.
Fourteen projects in Republican Rep. Alex Andrade's Pensacola district were cut after he spent much of the legislative session investigating one of DeSantis' top priorities, Hope Florida.
Much of that investigation revolved around how the Hope Florida Foundation, a state-created charity, accepted $10 million from a state settlement with a Medicaid contractor and quickly gave it away to two outside organizations, which then gave at least $8.5 million to a political committee controlled by DeSantis' then-chief of staff, James Uthmeier.
Andrade has accused Uthmeier of committing federal crimes, and the State Attorney's Office in Leon County has an open probe into it.
'From what I can tell, yes, Governor DeSantis is obviously trying to punish me for investigating the theft of $10,000,000 in Medicaid funds by his then chief of staff,' Andrade said in a text message.
'I knew that heavy vetos would be his reaction as I began investigating what happened. DeSantis can't help himself.'
Rep. Vicki Lopez, a Miami Republican who was outspoken against some of DeSantis' executive agency heads, saw more than half of her proposed projects vetoed, including $100,000 for a local boater safety program and $445,000 for a food access program.
Other representatives who found themselves in a spat with the governor saw their projects cut. Miami GOP Rep. Juan Carlos Porras, an outspoken Trump supporter who often criticizes DeSantis, had more than half of his projects cut.
Rep. Michelle Salzman, R-Pensacola, who ran a bill that would have kept DeSantis out of the college presidential search process, also saw about half of her proposed projects cut.
Comparatively, DeSantis' allies faced seemingly less heat. Sen. Jay Collins, the Tampa Republican who is eyed as a possible front-runner to be DeSantis' lieutenant governor, got four of his nearly 50 proposed projects vetoed.
Those four included $3 million for new generators for Hillsborough wastewater systems and $375,000 for the Tampa Museum of Art.
Overall, South Florida projects seemed to take a hit in the veto list. Because House Speaker Daniel Perez of Miami does not file any appropriations requests himself, other members would file requests for South Florida funding projects for him. Perez and DeSantis repeatedly clashed during this session, with Perez at one point likening the governor to a seventh-grader and DeSantis attacking House leadership as a failure.
A spokesperson for Perez did not respond to a request for comment.
Senate President Ben Albritton declined to comment.
The final total for next year's state budget, which begins Tuesday, is not clear.
That's partly because the budget wasn't released, and because DeSantis — who has seen the state budget balloon by 26% on his watch — used some creative accounting to calculate the total.
The Legislature's final budget, passed earlier this month, was $115.1 billion, about $500 million less than what DeSantis requested in February.
But in his news release Monday, DeSantis used a different metric to calculate the total, bundling in money that his administration did not spend during the previous fiscal year.
The result: In February, DeSantis said his proposed budget was $115.6 billion.
On Monday, he said the final budget was just $10 million off from what he originally proposed: $117.9 billion.
No study on property taxes
DeSantis also vetoed $1 million for state economists to study the effects of eliminating or significantly reducing property taxes, something he has been advocating for for months.
He said Monday that he's been 'nonplussed' by the economists' work. Their office, which reports to the Legislature, is known for issuing nonpartisan reports and staying out of the political fray.
'We don't need to give a bureaucracy money to study this,' DeSantis said. 'We know what needs to be done, so let's just do it.'
What 'it' means is not clear, and DeSantis' spokespeople did not respond when asked for clarification. Although DeSantis has floated the idea of eliminating property taxes, he has offered no concrete proposals.
Any statewide changes to property tax rates would have to be approved by 60% of voters through a ballot initiative, likely next year.
Republican lawmakers said they want to propose something for next year's ballot, and Perez convened a special committee to come up with ideas.
But lawmakers in both parties have balked at the idea of eliminating property taxes, warning that it could devastate local governments, especially in rural counties. Police and firefighters are the biggest expenses, on average, for city and county governments, and property taxes also heavily fund public schools.
'You're talking about a complete defunding of the government in those counties,' Rep. Shane Abbott, R-DeFuniak Springs, said during a committee meeting in May.
Former Republican Sen. Jeff Brandes said pretending property taxes weren't a serious issue was 'political malpractice.' He wrote on X that his think tank, the Florida Policy Project, would study it if economists didn't.
'We need research and a plan, not the Governor's 'let's wing it and hope for the best' strategy,' Brandes wrote. 'Florida deserves better.'
DeSantis also vetoed the Legislature's plan to put at least $750 million away in the state's rainy day fund, which was last accessed in 2008 during the Great Recession.
Along with the line in the budget this year, lawmakers earlier this month proposed a constitutional amendment to make that annual funding permanent and to make it harder to access for non-emergency spending.
'We're in this problem because we spend all the money in our checking account,' House Budget Chairperson Rep. Lawrence McClure said earlier this month.
DeSantis said he vetoed the move because he thought the amendment would not pass.