Latest news with #taxpayerfunds
The Independent
22-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Florida signs $245 million in contracts for 'Alligator Alcatraz.' Here's a look by the numbers
Gov. Ron DeSantis ' administration has already signed contracts to pay at least $245 million to set up and run the new immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz," according to a public database. The amount — to be fronted by Florida taxpayers — is in line with the $450 million a year officials have estimated the facility will cost. It's also a reminder of the public funding that DeSantis' Republican administration is spending to help carry out President Donald Trump 's mass deportation agenda. Human rights advocates, faith leaders and environmentalists have condemned the detention center. So has Mark Morgan, a former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump's first term. Morgan wrote an opinion piece published by Fox News criticizing the facility as 'built for headlines' and 'ripe for failure, mismanagement and corruption.' Here's a look by the numbers. More than $245 million allocated so far A state database of government contracts shows that since Florida officials announced plans for the facility on June 19, the Executive Office of the Governor has awarded at least two dozen contracts totaling more than $245 million in taxpayer funds to build and manage the facility. It rose in a matter of days from a county-owned airstrip surrounded by swampland about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami. All the contracts were awarded under an executive order declaring an illegal immigration emergency the governor first enacted in 2023 and which he has renewed since then. The order grants the state sweeping authority to suspend 'any statute, rule or order' seen as slowing the response to the emergency, including requirements to competitively bid public contracts. State officials say at least some of the cost will be covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is best known for responding to hurricanes and other natural disasters. But in court documents filed earlier this month, attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security stated that the federal government had yet to reimburse Florida for any of the costs. The department made clear that 'Florida is constructing and operating the facility using state funds on state lands under state emergency authority.' The largest contract totals $78.5 million The single largest state contract related to the facility is a $78.5 million deal with Critical Response Strategies, a Jacksonville-based consulting firm. The responsibilities covered include hiring a warden, camp managers, corrections officers and IT workers. Other major contractor include Longview Solutions Group, which is being paid $25.6 million for site preparation, civil engineering, road construction and fence installation. Doodie Calls, a St. Petersburg-based supplier of portable toilets and shower trailers, was awarded a $22 million contract. The firm Gothams landed a $21.1 million contract to provide IT services, access badges and wristbands for detainees, while SLSCO LTD and Garner Environmental Services were both awarded $19.7 million deals to build out the site and handle ongoing maintenance. Corrections officers to be paid up to $11,600 a month One of the contracts shared with The Associated Press shows Critical Response Strategies was set hire a warden for the temporary facility at $125 an hour and potentially spend more than $400,000 in overtime pay. It's not clear how long staffers can expect to work at the facility. Corrections officers at the facility can expect to earn up to $11,600 a month, plus overtime, according to a job posting for the company on LinkedIn. The starting pay for Florida's rank-and-file corrections officers is $22 an hour or about $3,800 a month at the state's brick-and-mortar prisons, which have been so persistently understaffed that DeSantis deployed members of the Florida National Guard to work at them for more than two years. Zero publicly available contract documents As journalists and watchdogs have raised questions about the contracts and companies behind them, documents detailing deliverables and line-item spending have disappeared from the state's website. They've been replaced with one-page invoices that show little more than the names of the companies, how much they're charging, the dates on which each deal was signed and an address for where to send the bill. Some multimillion dollar contracts were awarded to political donors who have given to campaigns supporting DeSantis and other Republicans. The governor's office directed questions about the contracts to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the state agency in charge of building the detention center. Spokesperson Stephanie Hartman said the contracts were removed because they included 'proprietary information that shouldn't have been uploaded.' The department did not answer questions about whether the full contracts would be released. ___
Associated Press
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Florida signs $245 million in contracts for 'Alligator Alcatraz.' Here's a look by the numbers
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Gov. Ron DeSantis ' administration has already signed contracts to pay at least $245 million to set up and run the new immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz,' according to a public database. The amount — to be fronted by Florida taxpayers — is in line with the $450 million a year officials have estimated the facility will cost. It's also a reminder of the public funding that DeSantis' Republican administration is spending to help carry out President Donald Trump 's mass deportation agenda. Human rights advocates, faith leaders and environmentalists have condemned the detention center. So has Mark Morgan, a former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump's first term. Morgan wrote an opinion piece published by Fox News criticizing the facility as 'built for headlines' and 'ripe for failure, mismanagement and corruption.' Here's a look by the numbers. More than $245 million allocated so far A state database of government contracts shows that since Florida officials announced plans for the facility on June 19, the Executive Office of the Governor has awarded at least two dozen contracts totaling more than $245 million in taxpayer funds to build and manage the facility. It rose in a matter of days from a county-owned airstrip surrounded by swampland about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami. All the contracts were awarded under an executive order declaring an illegal immigration emergency the governor first enacted in 2023 and which he has renewed since then. The order grants the state sweeping authority to suspend 'any statute, rule or order' seen as slowing the response to the emergency, including requirements to competitively bid public contracts. State officials say at least some of the cost will be covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is best known for responding to hurricanes and other natural disasters. But in court documents filed earlier this month, attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security stated that the federal government had yet to reimburse Florida for any of the costs. The department made clear that 'Florida is constructing and operating the facility using state funds on state lands under state emergency authority.' The largest contract totals $78.5 million The single largest state contract related to the facility is a $78.5 million deal with Critical Response Strategies, a Jacksonville-based consulting firm. The responsibilities covered include hiring a warden, camp managers, corrections officers and IT workers. Other major contractor include Longview Solutions Group, which is being paid $25.6 million for site preparation, civil engineering, road construction and fence installation. Doodie Calls, a St. Petersburg-based supplier of portable toilets and shower trailers, was awarded a $22 million contract. The firm Gothams landed a $21.1 million contract to provide IT services, access badges and wristbands for detainees, while SLSCO LTD and Garner Environmental Services were both awarded $19.7 million deals to build out the site and handle ongoing maintenance. Corrections officers to be paid up to $11,600 a month One of the contracts shared with The Associated Press shows Critical Response Strategies was set hire a warden for the temporary facility at $125 an hour and potentially spend more than $400,000 in overtime pay. It's not clear how long staffers can expect to work at the facility. Corrections officers at the facility can expect to earn up to $11,600 a month, plus overtime, according to a job posting for the company on LinkedIn. The starting pay for Florida's rank-and-file corrections officers is $22 an hour or about $3,800 a month at the state's brick-and-mortar prisons, which have been so persistently understaffed that DeSantis deployed members of the Florida National Guard to work at them for more than two years. Zero publicly available contract documents As journalists and watchdogs have raised questions about the contracts and companies behind them, documents detailing deliverables and line-item spending have disappeared from the state's website. They've been replaced with one-page invoices that show little more than the names of the companies, how much they're charging, the dates on which each deal was signed and an address for where to send the bill. Some multimillion dollar contracts were awarded to political donors who have given to campaigns supporting DeSantis and other Republicans. The governor's office directed questions about the contracts to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the state agency in charge of building the detention center. Spokesperson Stephanie Hartman said the contracts were removed because they included 'proprietary information that shouldn't have been uploaded.' The department did not answer questions about whether the full contracts would be released. ___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Fox News
20-07-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Biden admin spent hefty sum of US tax dollars to upgrade embassy swimming pools in Iraq, Russia
The Biden administration's State Department authorized more than $1 million in taxpayer funds for renovating swimming pools at U.S. embassies and mission residences in war-torn countries such as Haiti, Sudan and Iraq, a report from Sen. Joni Ernst's office found. "The Biden State Department threw a blowout summer pool party on your dime," Ernst, R-Iowa, said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. "Bureaucrats might think wasting millions is a drop in the bucket, but I am sick and tired of taxpayers getting tossed in the deep end by Washington," Ernst added. "I will continue working with the Trump administration to put a stop to the splashy spending of the Biden years." Ernst's office found that the State Department under the Biden administration authorized that two pools in Haiti, five in Iraq, three in Sudan, one in Russia, one in Zimbabwe and one in Ghana be renovated, totaling more than $1.2 million, according to the New York Post, which first reported on the pool renovations on Thursday. Taxpayers spent $41,259 to rehabilitate the pool at the U.S. embassy in Moscow in a contract inked three months after Russia invaded Ukraine in a war that has continued raging. The purchase order was dated June 3, 2022, through Aug. 15, 2022, after the war began in February that same year. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad was awarded a whopping $444,000 to replace its indoor dehumidification system for its pool in a contract that began on Sept. 27, 2024. While the U.S. Consulate in Erbil, Iraq received over $10,000 to conduct mechanical repairs to its pool, according to the Ernst report reviewed by Fox News Digital. In Sudan, taxpayers spent $24,000 in 2021 for the installation of a pool deck. Sudan has notably been under a State Department do not travel advisory "due to armed conflict, civil unrest, crime, terrorism, and kidnapping," with the embassy in Khartoum suspending operations in 2023 over the ongoing violent conflicts in the nation. Some of the contracts detailed in the report have not been fully paid out, such as a $173,000 award to conduct work on a swimming pool in Indonesia at the embassy in Jakarta. The federal government has previously been criticized for the amount of taxpayer funds spent on U.S. embassies overseas, including spending hefty sums on artwork under the Obama administration, Fox Digital reported at the time. U.S. embassies are primarily funded through congressional appropriations to the U.S. Department of State. Ernst's report follows months of the Department of Government Efficiency reporting it has saved the federal government billions of dollars amid its ongoing investigations into various federal agencies in search of corruption, overspending and mismanagement. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been at the forefront of gutting departments and programs under State's purview, including shuttering USAID earlier in July for failing to ensure its programs actually supported America's interests. "This era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to an end. Under the Trump administration, we will finally have a foreign funding mission in America that prioritizes our national interests. As of July 1st, USAID will officially cease to implement foreign assistance. Foreign assistance programs that align with administration policies – and which advance American interests – will be administered by the State Department, where they will be delivered with more accountability, strategy, and efficiency," Rubio said in comment regarding shuttering USAID.
Daily Mail
26-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Lawmaker seeks to cut millions in union funding
Tanning in Puerto Rico, bubble baths on Zoom. This is what Sen. Joni Ernst (pictured) claims some union members are doing on the taxpayer dime, inspiring the Iowa lawmaker to try and halt millions of dollars in payments to unions. During an event in Washington Wednesday, Ernst highlighted that in 2019, $160 million was spent funding this so-called union time. Federal employees are legally allowed to use official time - essentially working hours on the clock - for union duties like bargaining, resolving disputes and representing fellow colleagues. Citing whistleblower complaints, Ernst said her team has uncovered instances of federal workers using their taxpayer-funded union time to go tanning in Puerto Rico and run real estate businesses in Florida. 'We've caught them in their telework positions, not actually working, but doing other activities,' Ernst charged. Ernst is the founder and chair of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) caucus, which aims to root out major instances of waste of taxpayer funds. The Iowa Senator has introduced two bills to slash taxpayer funded union time, but neither has been considered as stand-alone legislation so far by her colleagues as the Senate prioritizes passing Trump's budget. However, Ernst still plans to try and either add in her legislation at later time, or offer it up as amendment to the Big Beautiful Bill still being negotiated in Congress. Ernst anticipates pushback to the move from her Democrat colleagues: 'I'd love to see the Democrats vote against a common sense piece of legislation. If we cannot get it amended into the one big, beautiful bill, then we will try and live you see it, to get unanimous consent to move it on the floor of the Senate.' Facing re-election in 2026, Ernst has taken strategic steps to align herself with President Donald Trump's agenda and chairing the DOGE caucus falls neatly in line with the administration's cost-cutting priorities. The Daily Mail reached out to the SEIU and AFGE unions for comments and did not receive a reply.
RNZ News
26-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Moana Pasifika funding under threat
Moana Pasifika may have had their best season on the field to date, but off field financial dramas are plaguing the franchise. Reports have emerged that Moana have been larely reliant on tax payer funds to survive, and that funding is now under threat of being pulled. Sports reporter Jonty Dine spoke to Lisa Owen. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
