Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his eighth and final budget (HB 5001E) of his tenure Monday, vetoing more than $800 million from a $114.5 billion spending plan.
The move came two days before the fiscal year was set to begin, after lawmakers’ battle over the amount of spending led to a stalemate that required a special session in May to settle.
After an infusion of federal stimulus funds during the Covid pandemic, DeSantis has touted a reduction in the budget for four straight years, as well as reduction in the state debt and a decrease of 1,300 state worker from when he first took office in 2019.
“Who else is doing that?” DeSantis said at a bill signing event at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa. “The footprint of government is not growing in Florida. If anything it’s shrinking.” [The 2019-20 budget DeSantis signed into law was $91 billion. The budget he signed into law today is 26 percent larger.]
DeSantis’ office didn’t immediately release the full list of line-item vetoes Monday morning, but he indicated he cut at least $800 million in spending.
“The things that we vetoed, a lot of those are just either inappropriate or maybe nice to have. Nice to have is fine, but I want to fund things that we have to have,” DeSantis said.
He also said he vetoed a companion budget bill (HB 5403E), which would have required $50 million in funding each year for the next 40 years for capital projects for the corrections system. The bill also required construction of a new 600-bed corrections hospital and bonds to be issued to pay for it.
There were also provisions in the main budget bill (HB 5001E) that tied $91 million in pay increases for corrections officers to the approval of the prisons bill, so those salary hikes are also nixed.
Another $24.9 million in prison repairs, and $56.4 million for new prison cells at Lancaster Correctional Institution in Gilchrist County were tied to the approval of the HB 5403E and fell to DeSantis’ veto.
The money for new prisons and maintenance at corrections facilities would have come from a debt reduction fund, which DeSantis has highlighted throughout his term as governor.
DeSantis said that while he supported the hikes in pay for prison guards in recent budgets to help retain and recruit employees to an agency plagued with turnover, the extensive borrowing required by the bill led him to quash it.
“It was a casualty of saying, ‘Okay, we’re going to rob Peter to pay Paul,’” DeSantis said. “That accounts for a decent chunk of the vetoes.”
In other parts of the budget, there’s more than $30 billion for K-12 schools, or about $9,338 per student, about $150 more than the prior year. That includes about $4.5 billion for the state’s school vouchers program, which pays parents a stipend to send their children to private schools or for homeschooling.
The funding also sets aside $1.5 billion to boost teacher pay, with more than $201 million for teachers with at least 10 years of experience, although the increase will be capped at $3,000 per year.
There is also $665 million for Everglades restoration projects, another priority for DeSantis throughout his two terms in office.
“This budget continues to move Everglades restoration forward so that Floridians – and those that visit our great state – can realize the ultimate benefits ahead of schedule,” said Everglades Trust CEO Anna Upton in a released statement. “Restoring the natural flow of water south through the Everglades and decreasing harmful discharges from Lake Okeechobee will mean that Florida’s economy, which relies on clean water, will continue to thrive.”
–Gary Rohrer, News Service of Florida
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