When lawmakers were preparing the budget in late February and early March, the Senate’s lead justice budget negotiator, Gainesville Republican Sen. DeSantis, however, did not veto private prison funding, with upward of $200 million OK’d by lawmakers. The second item set aside $195 million for a 250-bed hospital unit to serve the medical needs of the state prison population, particularly elderly inmates. The first item called for $645 million to construct a new 4,500-bed correctional institution. “ Veto list: DeSantis detains $840M in prison construction ” via Renzo Downey of Florida Politics - DeSantis has nixed lawmakers’ hopes to build a new prison and prison hospital, which would have cost $840 million. “They may not be clapping about that, but that’s just the way it goes,” DeSantis said of the possibility legislative leaders on stage were upset he vetoed their spending priorities. At times during the hourlong news conference, the Governor directly poked fun at them as they laughed and clapped, a continuation of the Legislature’s fealty to a Governor who has run roughshod over them as his reputation as a national Republican rock star and potential 2024 presidential candidate has grown. “ ‘Just the way it goes’: Ron DeSantis axes $3B from Legislature’s budget in front of Republican leaders” via Matt Dixon of POLITICO Florida - GOP leadership from the House and Senate stood at DeSantis’ side during a news conference in The Villages as he announced the record veto list. Ron DeSantis savored his line-item veto power. The House pitched $2 billion for the pot of money, briefly known as the “BIDEN Fund.” That was wrangled down to $1 billion during budget conferences, but the ultimate arbiter chose to fund it at the roundest of round numbers: $0.Ĭomplete coverage of the 2022-23 budget signing and highlights from the veto list is here. The largest single item to get the red pen was a fund meant to help state agencies absorb cost increases from inflation, which hit a 40-year high early this year and has hovered in that range since. What got the ax? Dozens of local projects, ranging from about $13,000 to fix an HVAC leak at a Miami public radio station, to $600 million to build a Moffitt campus in Pasco County - a top priority for Senate President Wilton Simpson. I broke my own record,” DeSantis said at a news conference in The Villages. “I have exercised my line-item veto authority for by far the largest number and amount of line-item vetoes in the history of the state. It’s a factoid of which the Governor is aware. The amount of money excised by DeSantis this year more than doubles the $1.5 billion he vetoed when he signed the 2021-22 budget. However, the veto list is a record-breaker, too. Florida’s new spending plan includes substantial increases in most budget silos, including a $1.7 billion bump in K-12 education spending, across-the-board raises for state employees, and $1 billion for the least-secretive October surprise in recent memory: a monthlong gas tax cut in the run-up to Election Day.
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